Swordsman X
by starspawn07
Summary: After killing Itachi, Uchiha Sasuke drops unconscious and wakes up ... in the Xavier Institute. crossover to Marvel Ultimate. 1st arc finished. please R&R.
1. The End is Just Another Beginning

**Swordsman X**

Yes I am excited to start another story, but the excitement will pass and my enthusiasm will wane. ( It always happens, doesn't it ? When that time comes, I may finally write in a less serious manner. ) Suggestions are very very very welcome.

This first chapter is a spoiler ( Naruto Manga chapter 393, 394 ). Ignore it if you want to. Afterwards, well, I don't know the Marvel Universe enough to spoil anything at all. XD

* * *

**The End is just the Beginning**

Above, the dark, gloomy, overcast sky. Below, a shadowy forest partially alight in fire. Black fire.

Contrasting extremes of cold and heat set up fierce winds that tore at anything standing up. Grass, trees.

Birds and animals fled from the howling gale and all - consuming flame.

And from the middle of the forest arose a terraced hill, topped by a plateau laden with pale brown and grey rubble, the large cracked remains of a megalithic structure.

Gradually the storm clouds cleared, and a slit opened up above the hill. A thin beam of golden sunlight shone down and illuminated the scene around the ruins.

There, facing each other, several boulders apart, stood two young men, one appearing to be in his late teens, and the other in his 20s.

"Your eyes belong to me now, little brother." Itachi huffed under his breath. The battle had taken a tremendous toll in him. He now stood with a slight hunch. Even his black hair drooped heavily over his head, face and neck, doused wet by the rain. His black T-shirt and pants were dotted with blood stains. There was blood on his face too, streaking down from his eyes. He stared ahead, exhausted but determined, the brilliant red irises in his eyes inspiring intense fear and panic in anyone who looked into them.

Such fear and panic was felt by his opponent, now equally spent and leaning with his back against a half crumbled wall.

Sasuke looked just like his older brother, though he did appear younger and his hair drooped less. He was naked from the waist up, his gi having been burnt off by the black flames summoned by Itachi, exposing various cuts and bruises sustained during the fight. Below the waist he wore a dark blue kilt, with a thick green rope in place of a belt. Strapped to his back through this rope was what appeared to be a pale brown, metre long and inch broad wooden stick, as well as a pale green utility pouch. His eyes were a glassy black, with hints of red flashing occasionally in his irises.

Now he fixed his terrified gaze upon Itachi, as the latter slowly stepped towards him. Above the latter there towered the skeletal apparition of a giant, long-nosed goblin, its face contorted into a murderous snarl. "I'll take them slowly, I want to savor thi -."

Itachi halted and doubled over. He shuddered and staggered as he coughed up a voluminous splash of blood.

Taking advantage of Itachi's internal injury, Sasuke fished out a small black dagger from his pouch. Attached to its ring-like pommel were two strips of white paper, each with the Kanji for "explode" written on it. He gripped the hilt of the dagger tightly, and the papers started to burn.

Swiftly, he threw the dagger at Itachi, and braced himself.

The blast rocked the hill and set the centre of the plateau ablaze with a several-stories high ball of bright white and orange fire for a few seconds. Sasuke knelt and closed his eyes as a gust of hot air rushed over him.

And then the echoes died down, the dust slowly settled, and the fire rose and dissipated, leaving a mild blast crater under it.

And in its centre stood Itachi, unaffected. The ghostly giant goblin was more solid than it appeared. He continued walking in his hunched, determined manner towards Sasuke.

"Fuck you !" Sasuke produced another black throwing dagger, this time with a long string of lighted explosive notes trailing from its pommel, and threw it at the opponent advancing menacingly like a zombie towards him.

Sasuke ducked behind a section of stone broken off from the wall. He heard several thunderous explosions, felt the ground shake beneath him, and hot air rush past him.

When all was quiet, he stepped out.

And Itachi stood right before him, staring at him with those terrible red eyes, half closed from exhaustion. Blood had gushed from his mouth and he wore an unwholesome expression.

"My … my eyes." Itachi raised his blood stained hands.

Sasuke cursed and gripped the top of his wooden stick. The top one quarter broke off and between the two resulting sections appeared the glint of metal, revealing the stick to be actually a sheathed sword, a straight, more primitive version of the common Katana.

"DIEEE !" Sasuke leapt up just as he had completely drawn his Chokuto and pointed it down at Itachi.

The next moment, he was slammed against the wall. "Agh !" The air left his lungs and the blade flew from his hands. Shocked and overwhelmed by an unbearable back-ache, he slumped down unto the ground below the wall.

He struggled to get back on his feet, and looked up in time to see Itachi's bloodied fingers a few centimeters from his forehead. He gasped, eyes wide in terror, and he tensed.

Now those fingers touched the middle of his forehead, and they pressed.

And they slipped.

Itachi muttered something incomprehensible, and he fell forward, collapsing against the wall beside Sasuke.

For a while Sasuke stared forward, motionless. Then he took a deep breath and stared down at where Itachi lay face up. The latter's eyes no longer possessed their frightening glare. No more panting from exhaustion either.

Sasuke knelt and looked down at the lifeless body of his older brother.

The fight was over, and now that Sasuke was no longer fearing for his life, or overcome by a strong desire to destroy his enemy, his memories took advantage of the moment of peace to invade his mind again. Memories of all the events that led up to this point.

Itachi murdering his best friend to gain a more powerful form of the Sharingan. The massacre of the Uchiha clan. Sasuke's vow to personally kill Itachi. Itachi's carefully laid out plans to obtain a permanent Mangekyou Sharingan. In the end, the very reason that Itachi needed to steal Sasuke's eyes also weakened him so that he died, not by Sasuke's hand, but of the side effects of his own incredible powers.

"Stupid." Sasuke sighed. "Even if you stole my eyes, it would be useless. They will not develop the Kaleidoscope Wheel-Scripting Eye, at least not in the way you want me to. I am not like you."

Now a tear trickled down Sasuke's cheek. "Why, why must you kill Mother and Father, and Aunt … I respected you so much. If you just told me …"

Sasuke shook his head and picked himself up. His usual blank, cold expression returned to his face. There was now nothing to get depressed about. He had done what he had set out to do years ago.

Finished. It's over.

Sasuke spun round and stumbled his way over to where his sword had fallen, near the edge of the plateau. Clambering over the rubble, he peered down over the side of the cliff.

It was a vertical drop down, to a broad river roaring past the foot of the hill. It was white from the churning and rapidly flowing water. Strange, he had not noticed any rivers when he came to the hill.

He picked up his sword, sheathed it, and, using it to prop himself up, he stood at the edge of the cliff and took in his surroundings. All around, the forest was being swallowed up by black flames. A sea of black flickering tendrils, like a monster from a Lovecraftian nightmare, gradually reduced the surrounding vegetation and soil into smouldering black ashes. Even as Itachi lay unconscious, probably dead, the aftermath of one of his most dreaded Techniques continued to spread and threatened to engulf the hills as well.

Horrifying.

Otherwordly.

Beautiful.

No, no, I am not like you.

Sasuke gasped, appalled that he was actually enjoying the sight of destruction. Swaying, he tried to steady himself, in vain. Now he was suddenly aware of how much the battle had drained him physically. He felt his legs give way, and did nothing to stop himself from falling forward. He might as well have dived. Not much difference.

At that moment, a faint impression of what Itachi said before he collapsed surfaced from the back of his mind, only now he could actually make out the rough meaning.

"It's only just begun."

It all went black even before he hit the water.

* * *

( If you have read the Manga, you will know where my story deviates from it. Now the X-over can begin :)

And yes I like to write X-overs because they require less thinking XD

Again, suggestions are very very very very welcome.

Happy Easter Sunday !

Star )


	2. Uh, Hi !

( Disclaimer: I do not own any character or plot device I write about

Uchiha Sasuke and other Naruto characters, are the brainchild of Masashi Kishimoto.

The X-Men series was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and later expanded on by other writers and artists.

Anything else would be made up by me, but still I don't own anything. )

* * *

**Uh, Hi !**

The sound of flutes mimicking the call of seabirds …

The melody of a zither matching the rise and fall of the waves …

_The great sea laughs, the tides on both shores rampant,_

_Drifting and sinking with the waves, remember only this moment._

_The vast sky laughs, throughout the world the tides innumerable ,_

_Who fails , who emerges victorious, only to heaven knowable ._

_The rivers and hills laugh, mist and rain afar,_

_Grand torrents, mundane trivialities, how proud of themselves._

_The light breeze laughs, as if alone,_

_My passion shall triumph over the night._

_Laa la la la la laa …_

"Laa la la la la laa …"

"Umm … could we change track, Kurt ?" The young brunette glanced over at the blue-furred boy sitting to her right.

"Come on, Katzchen, I thought you loved those movies ?" Kurt replied.

"It's Kathe – rine. And yes I loved those movies, but the ones we watched last night, what were they called again ?"

"Swordsman, I and II."

"Yes, those," Kat rolled up her eyes. "I mean … flying through the trees ? hopping on water ?"

"And remember you walk zrough walls."Kurt reminded her.

"Yes of course … but I just didn't get it. What's up with the guy turning into a woman ? Ultimate Loner's Sword ? Star Sucker ? You can tell they were all randomly made up."

"I think they are cool."

"Says the guy who runs period swordfight pirates dramas … whatever you call that … simulations in the Danger Room." Kat retorted.

"You what ?" exclaimed the man wearing dark red sunglasses seated at the pilot seat in front of Kurt.

"Uh, nothing, she's just kidding." Kurt waved his three-digit hands frantically. "Come on, Katzch', at least Jet Li was in it."

"Jet Li's never been in a real fight." Grunted the burly middle aged man leaning on the wall behind the passenger seats. His face was framed by short black hair, which gathered into two short projections behind the sides of the top of his head, giving him a rather feral appearance. His arms were crossed and he was looking out one of the windows with a bored expression.

"Before everyone forgets, we are here to fetch someone." The red haired woman at the co-pilot seat reminded her fellow passengers. "No violence."

"Don't worry, Jean, they've done it several times." Assured the man in sunglasses. "Let's see. We tell him or her that we are also mutants, and invite him or her to the Institution. Then our subject goes into denial, and Jean tries to calm things down. He or she gets angry, and dangerous. So Logan jumps in believing that he can't be hurt."

"Hmmph." The middle aged man shifted his gaze to another window.

"Then we all hold on to Kitty and phase away from danger …" Mr. Sunglasses continued.

"And zen I poof behind him and – " Kurt sat up excitedly.

"Scare the living daylights out of him." Jean finished his sentence, imitating his eager tone.

"- Yeah …" Kurt slumped back down, embarrassed.

"And what will you do, Scott ? Stand and stare ?" Logan shifted his gaze to the main cockpit window.

"Yup." Scott chuckled, pushing up his sunglasses. "That's what I always do I guess." He leaned against the back rest of his seat and stretched himself. Before him, one of displays on the control panel flashed "AUTO". "Jean, can't you tell us anything more about this person we are going to meet ?"

"No, Scott, I can't." Jean replied. "Even the professor can't tell anything. That's why we need Cerebro."

"Mhm, we flew across half of the Pacific to some unknown country just to pick up someone whom we know nothing about." Logan said in his habitual rough but cynical tone, changing his posture again as he did so. "Charles _is_ getting old."

"Well, at least we know 'he's not an ordinary human, and no ordinary mutant either'." Jean quoted the professor.

"Maybe he's a travelling swordsman !" Kurt eclaimed excitedly.

"Sit down, Kurt. I think we are are here." Scott sat up and gripped the steering handle.

The sleek blue black shape of the X-Jet descended gently onto the clearing atop the rocky beach. At its side a door opened up and its top fell to the ground below, revealing a short flight of stairs, along which five figures emerged from within the aircraft and stepped out into the open.

As soon as the last person's feet touched the rock, the surface of the modified Blackbird shimmered and the whole aircraft turned transparent, then appeared to vanish.

"Whoa, what happened !" Kat stared up at the charred, smouldering remains of what appeared to have once been a lush forest behind the beach. The crowd of black, leaf-less trees stretched indefinitely on along the upper levels of the winding seashore, standing amid a layer of black ash in place of soil.

"Look at the sea." Kurt gazed in wonder in the other direction, ignoring the scene of devastation behind him. He took a deep breath and rushed down to the seaside.

Logan came up beside Kat and sniffed at the air. "Forest fire. Happens."

"Jean, do you pick up anything ?" Scott asked.

"Trying." Jean closed her eyes and concentrated. "Very faint. Could be unconscious."

Scott faced the burned forest and surveyed their surroundings. Aside from the occasional black ash, the ground was comprised of gigantic grey and pale brown rocks, making the the beach appear like the battered down wall of an island fortress. To his left, a few boulders from where the X-Jet landed, a wide stream flowed down in loud torrents across the beach and into sea from somewhere in the forest. Even burned down the tall trunks and branches covered the interior of the forest in shadow.

"Uh guys, COME HERE!"

Scott turned around and saw Kurt waving jumping excitedly near the mouth of the stream.

"This turned out smoother than I thought." Scott grinned as he saw the unconscious figure of a boy laying half-naked between the stream and where Kurt stood.

_All life laughs, no longer alone._

_See, my passion is nothing but ridiculous laughter._

The waves subside

The call of the sea birds grow distant

Sasuke awoke to the chirping of birds and stared up at an unfamiliar white ceiling.

There was a bright light coming from his right. A window.

Sasuke sat up and peered out through the window.

A huge courtyard surrounded by trees. There were people walking about.

He could not make out any details. The sunlight was blinding. Sasuke raised a hand to block it out, and noticed something strange about his sleeves.

That he was wearing sleeves at all.

He glanced down and realized that he was wearing some kind of pale blue pyjamas. Upon closer inspection it was a white pyjama with pale plue strips running down vertically. The soft mattress on which he sat was white too. Yet all these did not matter. Something else alarmed him.

My sword !

Sasuke quickly looked around the room.

It was roughly four by three, reasonably comfortable, and very utilitarian. White walls, white ceiling, brown wooden floor waxed smooth. The small bed was placed horizontally under the window, which was opposite the brown wooden door. To his left was a cupboard and a blurry white sliding panel, probably the entrance to the bathroom, to his right, a desk and a set of shelves. Near the door was a drawer on top of which was a small TV. All the furniture was set against the walls and made of the same beige coloured hardened wood. All of them appeared empty. Apparently, this room was rarely used.

His chokuto, as well as his utility pouch, was placed on the desk.

He breathed a sigh of relief and climbed off the bed to reach for his items. Just as his fingers touched the hilt, out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of movement at the door, and instinctively spun to his left, drawing out his sword, then froze.

The transparent figure passing halfway through the door froze as well. What appeared to be a brown haired girl in her late teens stared back at Sasuke wide eyed and cupped a hand over her mouth.

Oops, was what Kat thought when she saw the boy standing at his desk and pointing his sword at her. She tried to apologize, then realized that she was still in the process of phasing through the door. She stepped forward, revealing the dark blue T-shirt and jeans she was wearing, and became tangible again.

"Um, hi !" She forced a smile. "Wow, you are awake already." In her mind she knocked her head for disobeying the professor, who had said that the guest was not to be disturbed until he had spoken with him … but noo … seeing him once was not enough, she had to let her curiosity get the better of her. Maybe she should stop watching those old Kung Fu movies.

The boy's eyes flashed brilliant red, and Kat thought she saw three claw-like shadows extend out from the edge of his pupils. Unnerved, she wanted to turn and dash out through door, but her feet stayed rooted to the ground, and she could not look away from those eyes. Even her breathing seemed to stop.

"Um … um …" Now she saw the boy stare past her at the door, and back at her. "Oh that … that was my mutant ability. You know … mu-tant a-bi-li-ty ?"

The boy narrowed his eyes, but did not move.

Only now did Kat recall what she was supposed to say in these kinds of situations. "I mean you no harm." She held up her hands and smiled, this time more sincerely. "Really."

The boy's expression softened. He sheathed his sword. His eyes returned to a black colour and Kat felt herself relax.

"Phew…." She held out a hand towards the boy. "Katherine Pryde. My friends call me Kitty."

The boy did not take her hand, but he understood her. "Uchiha Sasuke."

* * *

( Next weekend I will not be home. ( Yes, a real life mission ! OK not exciting at all but it's still a mission ) So the earliest update will probably come the weekend after that.

Again, despite how it looks, there may be no romantic themes ( unless absolutely necessary to the story )

I confess I don't have a firm idea where this should be going so suggestions are very welcome.

See y'all and have a nice day/night.

Star

"bampf !" )


	3. Mutant Abilities ?

Wow, thx for the reviews, guys. 2 chapters n already 9 alerts. Seems the naruto section is one of the busiest in :)

Thornmage, my knowledge of canon is fuzzy. Plus American comics don't seem to follow a central plotline XD if there's a free online Ultimate X-Man reader somewhere, pls let me know :)

Hedatary, thanks. I don't like to rush through my stories, which means I always end up proofreading them myself XD Thanks anyways !

* * *

**Mutant Abilities ?**

From behind his wooden desk, professor Charles Xavier regarded the boy standing next to Kat.

He was around same height as the latter and appeared leaner, though the professor knew that beneath those pyjamas was probably concealed an incredibly powerful physique able to survive a jump off several storeys and throw a sumo wrestler across Xavior's office.

Spiky black hair drooped down to the neck over his young, foreign looking features. The latter gave the impression of not having even gone through puberty, but that cold, contemplating and deep stare revealed his true age and experience.

Finally, the professor recalled that not everyone could communicate without speech, and broke the silence. "I assume you have a lot of questions for me, Mr Sasuke."

"Sasuke."The boy said, remaining expressionless. "My family name is Uchiha."

Beside him, Kat sighed and muttered in relief, "So you do know English huh."

"Sasuke," the professor corrected himself. One more thing to remember: not everyone's surname is placed behind the given name. "I believe there are many things you want to know. Ask."

A moment of silence, as the two stared at each other, with Kat again shifting her gaze nervously from one to the other.

"Where am I ? And who are you people ? " Sasuke glanced around the room, turning his head only slightly. Kat had noticed on the way to the professor's office that Sasuke only looked at his surroundings briefly. Either he did not care, or that was a side-effect of his mutation. Perhaps it had to do with that peculiar stare. Kat looked him up and down, trying to spot anything special about his appearance. They did, after all, go halfway across the pacific to fetch him.

"Ah, the standard questions." Xavier's late middle-aged visage softened a little. "I apologize, usually we would explain to the subject and give him or her time to consider, but when we found you, you appeared in no condition to talk. In addition, we were unsure if you could survive the night if we left you out there, so … here you are …"

"I suppose I should thank you then." If Sasuke were truly grateful, it did not show. "Answer my questions."

Now Xavior smiled. "You are in the Westchester School for Gifted Youngsters, or the Xavior Institute, if you like. My students like to call it the X-Mansion. I am Charles Xavior, the principal. This young 

lady here, which you probably already know a thing or two about …" he gestured to Kat. " … is one of my students, Katharine Pryde, also known as Shadowcat."

At the mention of that alternative name, Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "I see … this isn't just a school."

"Very sharp of you, Sasuke." The professor nodded. His smile widened a little. "You are now standing in the base of operations of the X-Men."

"X-Men ?" Sasuke raised another eyebrow.

"That's right." Kat grinned proudly, then noticed Sasuke's blank expression. "You … have heard of the X-Men right ?"

"Aside from pursuing an education and life in which they are not afraid to show their mutant abilities, a few of the students and staff are also part of a team of … peacekeepers." Xavior sighed. "Superheroes, as they like to call themselves."

"Mutant abilities ?" Sasuke tilted his head slightly.

"Oh, you can't be serious." Kat stared up at the ceiling.

Now Sasuke recalled how he and Kat met. "The lands where I come from were quite isolated. Hidden." Sasuke thought for a while. "Anyway, now I see why you brought me here."

"Oh no, it's because you scored straight 'A's." Kat replied jokingly.

The professor, on the other hand, did not appear the least bit annoyed. Rather, he was amused. "She is partly right, Sasuke, you are very intelligent for your age … I'm sure a little tour will clear up some of your doubts."

"So can I show him around, professor ?" Kat tried, and failed to hide the eagerness in her voice.

"Of course." Xavior nodded and looked up at Sasuke. "I understand that you come from a society quite different from our own. Still, please take the time to consider."

"I will." Sasuke turned to follow Kat out of the office, then halted for a while. "A question. How do you know ?"

"I have … the means to." He heard the professor reply.

Before him, Sasuke saw Kat shrug and point a finger at her head.

Psychic.

Now it was Sasuke's turn to be unnerved. All this while he had been talking to a person who could read minds, and possibly influence peoples' thoughts. What he felt now could well be what his opponents felt when he unleashed his Sharingan on them. And he had thought he had the old man all figured out with a glance. It was humbling, and very very ironic.

What the professor said next, made his face pale as a sheet for a moment, then red with embarrassment.

"Don't worry, Sasuke. I found you, that's all. I do not use my powers unless absolutely necessary. I do respect peoples' privacy."

Quickly, he closed the door behind him. Before, it was completely shut, he heard the professor call out.

"And yes, Kitty, you still have to finish that written assignment I gave you today."

"Aww…" came Kat's disappointed groan, followed by a sigh and chuckle.

Xxx

"So," Kat laid back against the backrest of the bench and looked at the boy. "What do you think ?"

"OK." Sasuke leaned back as well, and looked up in the sky. It was fast getting dark. "Reminds me of the Ninja Academy."

"The what ?"

"Nothing." Despite her enthusiasm, Sasuke could tell that she was tired as well.

Kat eyed him suspiciously and curiously through half-open eyes. "Hmm. You know, you haven't told me what you can do."

For a while Sasuke stared at barely visible stars, and then remembered what Kat was referring to. "Oh, it's quite complicated. I don't know how to demonstrate in a pleasant way, but I suppose I could show you what it looks like." Sasuke turned towards Kat and activated his Sharingan.

Kat gasped in shock as she saw Sasuke's irises turn brilliant red. Three black commas emerged tip-first from the edge of each pupil and aligned themselves evenly along a faint ring circling the pupil. Again, Kat felt that paralyzing sensation that she had felt when Sasuke first confronted her in his room, only now it was stronger. She felt as if those eyes were scanning her whole being, monitoring every twitch of a muscle, every blushing or paling of the skin …

"W-Wow…" Kat caught her breath as Sasuke broke the stare and looked forward at the seemingly endless crowd of oak trees beyond the tall iron fence several metres in front of them. The Xavior's Institute was located in the middle of the suburbs, and the whole campus was surrounded by trees, the only clearing being the courtyard they were currently in, and the roads leading outside.

Kat had told him that the professor had concealed the X-Mansion from the public's eye behind the projected image of a "Jehovah's Witness's Chapter", whatever that was. He wondered if the professor realized that the forest already afforded the campus a measure of secrecy. Especially at night, it was highly unprobable that anyone could spot the Mansion through the forest, unless he or she deliberately walked up to its gates, just as the residents in the Mansion could hardly see what lurked in the shadowy woods around them.

Sasuke could see the latter very clearly.

"Kitty, don't you have homework to do ?"

"Right," Kat sighed. "Let's head back in."

"Actually," Sasuke slouched down, pretending to enjoy the comfort of the bench. "I'd like to sit here for a while."

"OK." Kat stood up and stretched. "You gonna be fine ?"

"Yes." Sasuke pointed below the bench, keeping his gaze on the trees in front of him.

"You sure ?"

"I can spot danger long before it happens." Sasuke assured her. "Don't worry."

"Right … See ya."

He heard Kat's footsteps grow distant, and fade out completely. He sat motionless for a while, then turned to make sure that Kat had entered the building.

He grabbed his Chokuto from under the bench, stood up, and walked forward, staring ahead at the same spot in the dark forest.

The Sharingan could not see through objects. Fortunately for him, trees do not make for perfect cover.

Unfortunately for the six men slowly approaching the main campus grounds under the "cover" of those trees.


	4. The Lady Death Strikes

**The Lady Death Strikes**

Sargeant Payne cursed inwardly as he heard another snap of a twig. "Quiet !"

"What are we so afraid of, Sarge ?" one of the soldiers behind him whispered back. "They are most of them just kids !"

"And they are … the most of them … muties !" Sarge stared back at said soldier and scolded, careful not to shout.

"Now, let's carry on, and if any of ya … WHAT THE F ..." Sarge threw all his noise discipline away when he saw the figure standing a few metres in front of him.

"I assume you people are not from the Institute. Otherwise, you wouldn't have to sneak in like this." Sasuke looked at the six soldiers standing in front of him. They wore light, pale green vests which reminded him of the ANBU agents. Beneath that, and the similarly designed belts, pouches and holsters strapped around their waist and legs they wore black body armour molded around the contours of their body. Each also wore a simple black helmet with dubious extensions hanging down from the edges, and carried what looked like the black stem of a crossbow with intricate ridges and bumps along its sides and black metal tubes pointing near its front forward.

Behind him, Sarge could hear his men murmuring.

"Shit, he's a mutie, alright."

"We can take him."

"No we can't."

"Shut up !" Sarge snapped, then turned his attention to Sasuke. "We got six guns pointed at you, kid. You have no choice but to cooperate with us."

"So you have weapons then." Sasuke smirked. He drew his Chokuto.

The murmuring returned.

"Shit, he's crazy."

"Wa, is that a Samurai sword ?"

"No, it isn't."

"Any more noise, three months detention." Sarge growled at his men. The latter immediately stopped talking. "Good ... Now, kid, last chance. Drop that toy, turn around, and put your hands behind you. Do that, or we will hurt you !"

"What if I refuse ?" Sasuke lifted his sword.

"Darts." Sarge barked.

An average person would not even realize that he was being fired at until it was too late, but Sasuke saw the three projectiles flying towards him as clearly as a fly sees every drop that falls on a rainy day. With a flick of his sword, he blocked them all.

There was the ting of glass capsules shattering against metal, and Sarge jerked his head back in surprise upon seeing that Sasuke had taken no hit at all.

"Tranquiliser darts." Sasuke observed. "Who were those intended for ?"

"Why do we have to tell you ?" Sarge snarled, now sounding slightly less confident than before.

"Many reasons." The red glow in Sasuke's eyes appeared to intensify, giving him an almost demonic appearance. "For example …"

For a while the two sides stared at each other, nothing happening. Then a terrified expression settled on each soldier's face. Some stood still but shook visibly in fear. Others dropped their rifles and clawed at themselves with trembling hands.

"Shit, shit, shit …"

"Where the hell did they come from ?"

"Get em off, get em off !"

Sasuke chuckled at their reactions to the imaginary snakes. No, they had never faced Genjutsu ( illusion technique ) before. He suspected that even if he told them he was just messing with their senses, they would still freak out. Or perhaps that would frighten them even more.

Now Sasuke heard a few claps, and spun to his right towards the source of the sound.

From behind a tree, there emerged the figure of a tall, lean woman. She wore black, form fitting, leather suit and miniskirt. Her boots were black too, as were her hair, tied into a long ponytail behind her head, and her eyes … all except her skin.

As she stepped out into the moonlight and approached Sasuke, he could make out her North East Asian features.

"That was neat, whatever you did."

"Are you their team leader ?" Sasuke lifted his sword again.

"Team leader ?" The woman laughed. "That would imply that I am responsible for their lives. I am, but really I don't care if they all get killed."

Unaffected by her boast of cruelty, Sasuke cut to the chase. "And what would they be getting killed for ?"

"Same thing you are getting killed for." The woman's expression suddenly turned into a murderous grin, and she shot a hand forward.

Instinctively, Sasuke held his sword up, but even with his Sharingan active he was only barely prepared for what came next.

The woman's already long and sharp fingertips extended rapidly and speared towards him like the blades of curved rapiers. In a split-second the five impossibly long claws grew past his sword.

Immediately, he directed his chakra energy sidewards and felt a strong rush of air.

Yuriko blinked in astonishment as her opponent vanished in an instant, replaced by a pile of leaf and twigs collapsing onto the ground.

"Wha- mmph !" She grimaced as a searing pain shot through both her lower thighs, forcing her to drop to a high kneel.

She turned her head to see the boy standing behind her, sword swung out to one side. The latter's long hilt, like its sheath, had an oval cross-section. A strip of metal ran its length along each side and met with the small, barely noticeable hand guard. Its blade was shaped just like that of a common katana, though this one appeared perfectly straight. Its tip, which had a sharp edge on both the curved and straight sides, now dripped with blood.

She forced a chuckle. "Neat sword too. Looks ancient. Where did you get it ?"

"I ask the questions." Sasuke held the sharp edge of the Chokuto ( "straight blade" ) to her throat. "Tell me, what are you and your men doing here ?"

To his surprise, she just laughed.

Now Sasuke saw, through the gashes behind her boots, her wounds were starting to fade. They were shrinking, closing, disappearing right before his eyes.

"Who … what are you ?"

"I am the Lady Death herself." Swiftly, Yuriko leapt to her feet and spun round, swinging her extended claws at Sasuke, who leapt back away from them.

"Too slow, Lady Death." Sasuke taunted, then appeared to vanish again.

Yuriko swore in frustration, then gasped, eyes wide, as she felt something long, hard and thin pierce into her waist from behind her, through her stomach and chest and out above a collarbone.

She looked down to see the tip of Sasuke's sword sticking out from the side of her neck.

"This … isn't gonna k-" She winced as the pain overwhelmed her before she could finish her sentence.

"No, it won't. I don't kill strangers anyways." Sasuke pulled out his sword, allowing his opponent to collapse limply face down onto the floor. That stab went through an awful lot of flesh. Very painful, but not fatal. He had deliberately missed all her vitals.

Mild exhaustion caught up with him, and he breathed heavily for a while. His body was not perfectly conditioned for such speedy movement. The precise dodges and strikes were made possible through his Sharingan. Had this fight dragged on longer, Sasuke would be forced to reveal his flashier techniques. It was better to take care of an opponent before she learned what you were truly capable of.

Leaving Lady Death to groan in agony, Sasuke approached the soldiers, who now looked at him with fear and apprehension.

"Chill, chill, man." Sarge stammered. "Yuriko's the real killer. We are just the side show. Honest !"

"I can call more than just snakes." Sasuke put on a sadistic grin.

"OK OK !" Sarge pleaded. "You want the truth ? K, here … there's something you need to see."

From one of his pouches, Sarge took out a metal canister the size of a soft drink can, which he threw onto the ground before him.

Sasuke stared at the weird object for a moment.

Then it burst open with a blinding flash, and spewed out a cloud of dense white smoke which expanded to obscure his entire field of vision within a second.

"Run for it, boys ! Regroup at zero niner !"

"Yes, Sarge !"

Recovering from his initial shock, Sasuke was about to give chase, when he remembered something, and looked over at where Yuriko lay.

Where she lay a moment ago.

Cursing himself for taking his eyes off what was obviously the bigger threat, he leapt up a tree, over the iron fence and darted towards the main building of the Institute.

Xxx

Crouching silently over the bottom of the window, which she had cautiously opened, Yuriko looked into the dark interior of the bedroom.

At the bed itself, and the blue skinned young man sleeping on it.

No mistake. That tail, the smoke and faint but fiery glow rising from his mouth.

He was definitely one of the former Weapon X assassins she had seen in the file. A teleporter, so she had read.

From a pocket on her suit she pulled out a tranquilizer dart.

She raised her other hand and prepared to extend her claws,

And let out a surprised "uuhh !" as something heavy punched into her side, momentarily aggravating her partially healed internal wounds, knocking the air out of her lungs and throwing her off the outside of the window and down onto the grass two storeys below.

Landing with a painful thud on all fours, she slowly stood up and looked up to see Sasuke sitting at the window she had fallen from.

More exactly, he was pressed with his back against the wall below the window. Where his hands and feet adhered to the wall, there was a faint, barely noticeable blue glow.

"What are you ? Spiderman's cousin ?" Yuriko shouted. In her frustration, she held up both hands and all ten silvery claws shot up at the figure attaching himself to the wall.

His Sharingan still active, Sasuke prepared to dodge, then realized to his chagrin that if he did so, there was the possibility that those claws could just go past him and snatch whoever her original target was inside the room.

He spun his sword in a narrow arc, in an attempt to deflect the attack completely. He managed to parry off eight of the claws. The latter plunged harmlessly into the surrounding wall. One claw pierced his shoulder. Another grazed his right arm.

"Whatever happened to your superspeed, boy ?" Yuriko smirked.

Ignoring the pain, Sasuke concentrated and channeled his lightning elemental chakra into the adamantium claw stabbed into his shoulder.

His opponent jerked back in shock and immediately retracted all her claws.

"No running away now !" Sasuke quickly formed a series of mudras with his left hand. "Bunshin ! ( Split body ! )"

His body faded into a blur, then came back into view, together with several identical bodies, who leapt down and stood in a semicircle around and behind Yuriko.

The latter spun round and glared at the Sasuke-clones in panic. "Shit…"

Then, shortly after they landed, the clones faded into a blur again and vanished.

Sasuke stared down wide eyed. How …

Yuriko laughed. "Seems there's a limit to how many illusions you can create in a day, hmm ?"

"I'll fight you physically again if I have to." Sasuke threatened.

"I don't think so." Yuriko flashed him that evil grin of hers. "Maybe another day."

Now Sasuke became aware of something pricking into his right thigh. He looked down to see what it was. A tranquilizer dart.

When he looked at the courtyard again, Yuriko was gone.

The next moment the strength faded from his limbs, and he fell forward.

Just when he thought he was going to smash his bones on the ground, he heard a "bampf" and smelled the strong odour of brimstone.

"I got you, Mr Swordsman !"

Through his blurring vision, Sasuke made out the face of a young man with deep blue skin, glowing orange eyes and a fiery mouth staring down at him.

"Wh … who …"

"Mine name is Kurt Wagner. Zey call me ze Nightcrawler !" the blue skinned boy replied.

"Oh …oh …" Sasuke felt himself being lowered gently to the ground.

"Zat was some amazing ting you did !" Nightcrawler's voice was getting softer and more distant.

"The clones … they weren't supposed to …" Sasuke felt the strength fading from his diaphragm.

"You did well, Mr Swordsman. You saved my life !" Barely audible now.

The next moment everything faded, into blackness and utter silence.


	5. Good Morning

Again, thanks for the comments, guys :)

Thornmage, it's canon, they actually said that in one of the first few volumes ;)

Timdrakefanatic, I'm considering that too, for a later arc. I like his 'I don't care who ur boss is, I'm just here to kick ur ass !' attitude.

Hedatary, don't worry, as the story progresses, we will gradually reveal Sasuke's true strength ;)

* * *

**Good Morning**

Beneath an inky black sky, Sasuke trudged through the seemingly lifeless inner landscape of his mind. Not exactly lifeless. Every rock, trench, mound etc was twisted into unwholesome imitations of organic shapes. Visual representations of the frightening complexity of his own mind.

Now before him one of the tallest standing stones grew and expanded until it molded itself into a giant green snake who towered several storeys above Sasuke.

The serpent opened its mouth and from within emerged a pale, long face with long slanted eyes. The latter opened to reveal gold irises with vertical slit like pupils which gazed down in amusement at the boy.

"You got bested by a woman with long fingernails …" The snake-man hissed.

"Didn't see you helping, Orochimaru." Sasuke replied without looking up.

"Oh, if you release me I would. Let me take over …" Orochimaru licked his near non-existent lips with a black forked tongue.

"I had her." Sasuke walked over to a stool shaped rock and sat down. "Something … someone … dispelled my bunshin."

"Another Shinobi … or you were just tired.That fight with your brother took a lot out of you." Orochimaru smiled with no real hint of concern. "Out of us." He added as an afterthought.

At the mention of Itachi, a subtle darkness descended upon Sasuke. "Perhaps … I should have taken his eyes …"

Then immediately he shook his head.

As did Orochimaru. "For all your cunning, Sasuke-kun, you still believe what your brother said, that killing is the only way to get a Mangekyou Sharingan ?"

"Ha, you'd be the last one to care." Now Sasuke looked up at the giant snake. "Are you hiding something from me ?"

"How could I ?" Orochimaru forced a look of innocence. "Relax, Sasuke-kun. Itachi is dead. There is ample time and space for you … for us … to develop our abilities."

"Right." Sasuke muttered, still uncertain.

Xxx

Dr Cornelius looked up from the computer screen and shivered as he felt the shadow creep over from behind him.

He had worked with frightening characters before. Crazy generals, murderous mutant assasins who could not be killed, scientists like himself, whose methods even he found extremely deplorable. Yet only the figure standing behind him now could inspire such raw fear. So disturbing he dared not even look it straight in the eye. No, that would be a dangerous thing to do.

"What … do you want now ?" He stammered.

The reply sounded strangely human. "Your little kidnapping attempt failed utterly."

"They … they've got a new kid." He explained.

"I know." The shadowy figure approached. "I was there."

"What ?" Cornelius trembled, both from surprise and the unnerving proximity of the figure behind him. "You didn't do anything ?"

Silence for a moment. "If that were so, Deathstrike would be in their hands now."

"I … I see." Cornelius gave an exaggerated nod.

"No you don't."

The voice was receding from him, and Cornelius discreetly heaved a sigh of relief.

"Nevertheless, I will act when the time is right. Till then, you people will do what you are told. Nothing more, nothing less …"

"Can I ask …" Cornelius immediately regretted speaking as he felt the shadow draw closer to him again.

"What ?"

Cornelius gulped. "A … Assuming we can get them. How can we be sure that they will cooperate with us ?"

"I have the … power to."

With that, the shadow dissipated from the room, and Cornelius hunched over to catch his breath.

Xxx

It was morning when Sasuke woke up again, but this time there was no bright sunlight shining in from the window, only a dim grey gloom. Overcast sky, he realized.

A faint roll of thunder, and a cool breeze, confirmed his inference.

And then right after that another roll of thunder.

What sounded like another roll of thunder.

It was then that he realized he had not eaten for more than a day. No big deal for a Shinobi.

Putting up in a Mansion and not having eaten for a day. Now that's a big deal.

Now that he thought of it, he realized he also had not changed out of his pyjamas since first waking up in the X-Mansion.

Where did they keep his original cloths ?

He got out of bed and walked over to one of the drawers, which he opened level by empty level.

In the middle of his search he heard a few knock on the door, and he immediately leapt to his feet, facing the door, almost expecting someone to walk right through the latter into the room again.

Then he chuckled at his own silliness. If the person could do that he or she would not need to knock.

He walked over to the door and opened it.

In the corridor right outside stood a woman half a head taller than him, slightly older than any teenager, but just slightly. She had shoulder length, mildly wavy red brown hair. She wore a revealing tight singlet and black pants, and black slippers.

"Good morning." She smiled. "Sasuke right ? I'm Jean Grey. Call me Jean, or Marvel Girl, if you like."

For a moment Sasuke stared at her. Unlike most people who met his gaze for too long, Jean kept up her pleasant smile, neither freezing nor trembling in fright. One of the older X-Men, he surmised.

"Yes, good morning." Sasuke returned the greeting. "How can I help you ?"

Jean shrugged and tilted her head. "Was wondering if you remembered the way to the kitchen."

Oh, of course. Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "Who else here is psychic ?"

Jean laughed. "Just me and the professor, as far as I know. And don't worry, I didn't actively read your mind or anything. Some feelings are easier to pick up than others."

With that, Sasuke's stomach growled again, and he hunched over in embarrassment.

"Come on. It's breakfast time." Jean turned and motioned for Sasuke to follow. "I think the others are downstairs already."

Xxx

The dining room, well, looked just like any other dining room.

Wooden Cabinets and shelves set into the white wall, as well as a refridgerator. Set into the opposite wall, more cabinets, a stone platform with a sink, two stoves, and a microwave oven. In the wall between them, directly opposite the entrance, a window affording a view of the rear of the main Institute building, mainly more trees and a lake.

Pale orange tiled floor.

In the middle of the room was a relatively large rectangular table with all sorts of bottles, cans, baskets and a few plates on its middle.

Seated around the table were a group of strangers, as well a few he had already met.

There was Kat, munching on a sandwich held in her left hand while reading something on a sheet of paper and spinning a pen in her other hand. Beside her was a blue skinned figure whom he recognized as "ze Nightcrawler" from last night.

The latter was gesturing wildly with two three digit hands while speaking excitedly to the three men sitting opposite him. "… You should have seen him, Logan ! it was …"

"I get it, bub. You've told me over and over." Replied a rough voice from behind a large sheet of newspapers held up by muscular, hairy arms.

Beside Logan, an even heavier looking, East European young man, the tallest of the group, resting his chin on a fist, seemed more interested. "What did you say she looked like again ?"

"I'm not sure, Peter. It was so dark. She looked … Japanese, and she had zese long t'in claws …" Nightcrawler did a "magic fingers" sign with one hand.

"Yuri." muttered a dark skinned, white haired woman standing in front of the window and looking out at the grey sky.

"Deathstrike." Logan appeared to nod. "Weapon X."

Seated on his other side, a leaner man, roughly the same age as the East European giant, with black hair and wearing a pair of red-black sunglasses, who had been crossing his arms pretending to be asleep, turned to Logan. "Didn't we axe them ?"

"No, Scott, we didn't axe them."Logan flipped a page and reached for a cup of coffee. "We axed their headquarters."

"Hi guys !" Jean popped into the dining room, Sasuke following behind. He saw everyone's mood lightened by a few shades. He wondered if there wasn't some telepathic nudging going on, then dismissed the thought.

Jean looked around the room. "Where's the others ?"

"Just being emo." Kat replied flatly.

Nightcrawler chuckled. "Haha, Katzch' is jealo-"

Before he could finish the word, Kat looked towards the entrance and waved. "Hi, Sasuke. I heard what happened last night. I thought you said you'd be fine."

"No need to worry." Sasuke said nothing further, then looked over at Nightcrawler. "Thanks for helping me … Kurt."

"No problem !" Kurt saluted.

"K, you guys get chummy." Jean walked over to the fridge, opened it, and took out a cup of ice-cream. "I'm gonna see how Rogue's doing." She turned and walked out of the dining room, leaving Sasuke to stand and stare at the others.

The person called Logan lowered his newspapers slightly to stare at Sasuke, the latter noticed, with a hint of disbelief.

"You the kid who almost caught Deathstrike ?"

Sasuke did not know what else to say. "I am."

"Hmph." Logan raised his newspapers again. "You're good. Come sit down."

Scott appeared to raise his eyebrows and smile. "Wolverine is impressed. Now when was the last time that happened ?"

"Before you were born." Logan reached for another sip of his coffee.

Sasuke sat down beside Kurt and eyed the older men.

The blue skinned boy put an arm around him. "Relax, mine friend. Logan looks gruff, but he can be very kind and gentle."

Before him, those big hairy arms appeared to shiver as if Logan just had cold water poured all over him.

Kurt laughed, then turned to Sasuke again. "Hey, you are good with ze sword, ja ? Maybe we can spar sometime."

A faint mischievous smile appeared on Sasuke's face at the suggestion. "Sure."

A brief moment of silence. "Can I ask you something ?"

"Ja ?"

"Who is Spiderman ?"

The question drew both incredulous and amused stares from everyone else around the table.

* * *

( Now that's all for tonight, unless you want to explain to Sasuke who Spiderman is ...

Next chapter will probably come tomorrow, next weekend, or the weekend after that.

See y'all then.

Have a nice day/night :)

Star )


	6. Danger Room

Hi guys.

Darksentinant, thanks for pointing that out :)

2stupid, supposedly, but we could also say that the shinobi nations are very isolated, like the Savage Land. That's one of the many details I have not finalized yet.

I may include elements from classical Marvel, so be forwarned !

* * *

**Danger Room**

Trees all around him, drowned in shadows.

Sasuke took one last look back where he came from.

Satisfied that no one at the Mansion was going to spot him, he looked up at the overhanging forest canopy through which gloomy grey light filtered down from the sky, now churning with dark storm clouds.

Raising both his arms, he took a deep breath, then looking forward, pressed his hands together in front of his chest, forming a hand seal that he had seen his best friend make.

Best friend ? His only ever close friend perhaps. The only person for whom Sasuke would once willingly die for, and vice versa.

Now, his path has led him somewhere else. Things of the past shall stay in the past.

A rustling of leaves brought Sasuke back to the present, and he focused once more on practicing.

"Kage bunshin no jutsu !" ( shadow split-body technique ! )

The shadows around him shifted like black slime molds gliding outwards from him, and towards him from his surroundings. In an instant they condensed in two spots in front of him, and rose up to exactly his height, then faded away, leaving two figures identical in appearance to him in every detail, down to the way the hair waved in the cool breeze, and the standing posture.

For a moment Sasuke and his two shadow clones stared at each other. Now how did Naruto go about this ?

Sasuke sighed and called to the clone to his left, "Sasuke 1", and to his right, "Sasuke 2". The clones stopped shifting their gazes and stared at him in attention.

"Good, now I want you to …"

"Try and kill you." Sasuke 1 finished for him.

"Mhm…" Sasuke nodded.

"You do know that we can't really kill you, right ?" Sasuke 2 asked.

Then before Sasuke could answer, Sasuke 1 waved a hand. "Maybe we're just bored, so let's get this started ok ?"

At once the three Sasukes leapt back and disappeared into the surrounding woods.

"Hmm, even our opening moves are the same." Sasuke mused as he flew over the thick undergrowth, and landed in front of a tree trunk. "Wonder how Naruto coordinates his attacks when he summons a crowd of them."

Pressing his back against the tree, he activated his Sharingan.

If the clones thought like him, their attacks should probably come about now.

Right on cue, he heard the chirping of thousands of birds swooping in on him from a distance. "Oh boy."

"CHI … DO… RI !" ( thousand birds !)

Sasuke leapt up and clung to the thick base of a tree branch just as from behind a bush Sasuke 1 charged and dove into the position where Sasuke just stood and shoved his right palm fingers forward. The latter bore completely into the tree in a shower of sparks, smoke and wooden splints. When Sasuke 1 withdrew his hand, a glowing blue orb could be seen held loosely in its palm with blue, white and black electric sparks streaking from it, producing a loud crackling sound like the chirping of a massive flock of birds.

Narrowly avoiding being impaled by his own favourite offensive technique, Sasuke swung himself up and towards the centre of the tree, then settled down in the space where the trunk split into its main branches.

The next moment, Sasuke 2 leapt out from behind another bush and stepped atop the shoulders of Sasuke 1. Using the latter as a platform, Sasuke 2 let his momentum push him up and forward as he ran up along the tree towards Sasuke, one hand held at his back.

Sasuke leaned aside just as Sasuke 2 brought the hand forward and swung a chidori orb at where the former's face had been milliseconds ago.

Gripping that hand with his own left hand, Sasuke hugged a tree branch with his right arm and threw the clone up in the air. As the latter flailed his limps in an attempt to steady himself before falling down, Sasuke quickly gathered lightning chakra into his palm, forming his own chidori orb which he shoved into the clone's chest.

Sasuke 2 was engulfed by shadow which broke down and was blown away like ash.

Sasuke winced as a sharp pain shot through his left shoulder. Injury from last night. No big deal.

"Check." Sasuke 1 said while clinging to a tree branch behind Sasuke and pointing the tip of his chokuto at the latter's back.

Split-seconds later,

"Check."

Sasuke 1 looked up to see Sasuke standing atop the branch he was holding on to and pointing his own chokuto down at his face.

"As expected." The clone smirked. The two eyed each other with their Sharingan eyes for a moment.

Then deciding that a Genjutsu duel would be a waste of time for two bodies who are basically the same person, Sasuke leapt off the branch just as Sasuke 1 pointed his sword up and a bolt of lightning burst forth from its tip and shot upwards through the forest canopy above.

xxx

"Ororo …" Logan looked up from his newspaper at the dark skinned woman in a black T-shirt and faded grey jeans standing at the window. At the same time he noticed that the dining room was now empty except for the two of them.

"I know." Ororo kept staring out at the sky. "Not every weather condition is a reflection of my mood."

"Well, you still look moody to me." Logan shrugged. "Is it about DeathStrike ?"

"She came back last night." Ororo turned around so that Logan could see her almost completely white eyes, which, together with her neck length white hair and gloomy mood, gave her a rather unsettling look. "What if all of us were asleep ? She would have –"

"I wouldn't let anything happen to us, I promise." Logan assured her. "Besides, if Nightcrawler is right, the new kid's got some stuff in him. Maybe Chuck would include him in the team soon."

"It's all my fault." Ororo sighed and looked down at the floor.

Logan stood up from his seat and walked over to Ororo. He dropped the sheets of newspaper and clutched her shoulders gently with his hands. "Look, it ain't nobody's fault OK. People just hate us, that is all. If it weren't your Yuriko, it'd be someone else. Just know –"

Silence.

"What ?" Ororo looked up to see Logan staring past her out through the window.

"Did you just do that ?" Logan had a curious look on his face.

Ororo turned around and tried to follow his gaze towards the forest beyond the lakes and sports facilities outside.

There it was. Easily missed, but if you waited without blinking too much you would spot it.

Thin arcs of lightning darting and dancing across the treetops. Occasionaly, blurry human figures would flit by here and there.

"No, I most certainly didn't."

xxx

Sasuke 1 chuckled as the sword was yanked out of his ribcage from behind. "Saw that coming." Then he crumpled to black ash and was blown away as well.

Behind him, Sasuke stabbed his sword onto the ground and stretched himself.

"Another one of your illusions ?"

Sasuke looked up to see the figure of a woman, arms held out to the sides, slowly descending onto the ground from midair. Her dark-skinned exotically attractive face was framed by neck-length white hair. Her eyes glowed white like phosphorescent lamps.

"Playing around." Sasuke fingered the hilt of his sword. "You are an X-Man too ?"

"Ororo Munroe." The woman smiled. "Storm."

"Uchiha Sasuke." Sasuke picked up his sword and sheathed it. "Mr. Swordsman, or so Nightcrawler called me."

Ororo laughed. "I know, I was in the dining room just now. Say … why don't we go play somewhere else ?"

xxx

Usually, the underground training room of the X-Men appeared as a gigantic hall with walls, floor and ceiling covered in large square tiles made of a smooth, dull, but uniform blue grey material. A section of the ceiling protruded like a three metres high elevated platform, only this one was set up-side down. It extended all the way from where the ceiling folded down into a wall, to the middle of the ceiling, where it ended in a semicircle whose sides were made up of a glass window slanted down inwards to give a better view, from its dark interior, of what was going on down in the rest of the danger room.

Behind this glass window sat the Professor in his wheelchair. Around him stood the rest of the X-Men. All of them looked down through the glass in interest at the figure of a boy with neck length spiky hair in pyjamas and wielding a metre long sword dodge and dispatch his realistic holographic opponents with ease.

"What did you say his mutant ability was ?" Scott asked.

"Sasuke has very powerful eyes. According to him, it is a recurring phenomenon in family. His Bloodline, as he called it."Xavier replied. "He can see anything in his line of sight with perfect clarity. Nothing is too fast or too confusing for him. He can also predict someone's moves and even copy them."

"He's fast. The boy's been trained before." Logan whistled as Sasuke toppled a Sentinel by cutting open its feet before the chrome giant could even register what was going on. Quietly, Wolverine left the crowd and disappeared behind them into the darkness.

"Espionage and assassination." Xavier nodded. "An advanced form of hypnosis and martial arts. So advanced, it seems, his illusions can actually become real in a certain sense."

"Whoo !" behind him, Kurt and another young boy wearing a bandana cheered as Sasuke and his shadow clones ran circles around and on top of another Sentinel.

"You show them, brother !" the boy punched in the air.

"Ah don't know, Bobby, it looks dangerous." A girl standing beside him muttered as Sasuke short circuited the Sentinel's eyes and then vanished, appearing on the ground a safe distance from the collapsing robot. Her hair was mostly brown, with a white streak near the forehead. Her irises were red and the rest of her eyes were all black.

"You know how boys are, Rogue. He's probably enjoying it. Besides, he's got a healing factor." Beside her, Jean stared down with a concerned expression. "Slow but it's definitely there. I noticed when I was dressing his wounds. And I saw this tattoo …"

The Professor raised his eyebrows. "You worry about his connections ?"

"Aside from the fact that even though he looks like a teenage boy, he's packed full of superpowers of uncertain origins ?" Jean looked around, then continued. "Remember when Wolverine first came to us ?"

"Um… Speaking of Wolverine …" Kat pointed down through the window.

"Oh bozhe moi …" exclaimed the tall, black haired Russian standing beside Scott.

xxx

Sasuke surveyed the scene of "destruction" that he had caused. A virtual junkyard of gigantic metal heads, arms, legs and other unrecognizable parts.

It had been a breeze. Of course, if any of the so-called Sentinels managed to catch hold of him he would be in trouble, but to him getting caught by such slow creatures was like standing still at the foot of a mountain and asking his friend to roll a boulder over him. Considerably difficult.

There was a whirring sound and the scenery around him began to fade, or rather, peel away, like tides receding back into the sea, revealing the blue-grey tiles of the Danger Room.

"You're good, kid. I usually need Colossus's help to pull the stunts you just done."

Sasuke spun round towards the source of the voice, and saw the muscular burly figure approaching him from the trapezoidal entrance of the training room.

"You are Logan."

"Right, kid." Logan grinned. "Wolverine." He clenched his fists and from the mittens between each finger a foot long, gently bent metallic claw shot out. "Now let's see how your powers work, up close." He scratched his bare chest with the claws on his right hand, creating three long red gashes which, to Sasuke's astonishment, closed and disappeared in seconds, leaving his chest as it always appeared, down to every thick black strand of hair.

"You are just like that lady last night." Sasuke observed.

"Right." Logan's grin widened. "I'm the original weapon X."

Without warning, Logan pointed his claws forward and lunged at Sasuke like a tiger pouncing on a deer.

Except now the deer moved at inhuman speeds.

Logan smirked as Sasuke vanished as he was within inches of getting stabbed. "A question, kid, how did you cut through the Sentinels' plate armour ? It's not something you can do just by swinging your sword hard."

"I have my methods." Halting a few metres to Logan's right, just beyond the latter's line of sight, Sasuke quickly formed his Bunshin hand seal.

"Nice trick." Wolverine chuckled as the illusory clones surrounded him from all sides. "Only … I can smell the real you."

Sasuke leapt back in surprise as Logan charged directly in his direction. Dispelling his clones, he drew his sword and blocked the latter's claws.

"Adamantium. Not so easily sliced through, so don't you worry." Logan's grin now had a savage feral look to it. "Come, Ninja, show me what else you can do !"

Sasuke's eyes glowed red.

"Pretty eyes you got." Logan appeared unaffected by the boy's stare. "I suppose if I were someone else I'd be hypnotized now hmm ?"

"That's enough, Logan."

Both of them looked over at the entrance to see Professor X and the rest of the X-Men approaching them slowly. Most of them. Nightcrawler and Bobby were running towards him waving excitedly.

"You have to forgive Logan, Sasuke." Xavior apologized. "Wolverine has a certain … passion for fighting. He also has a considerable resistance to mind probing of any kind, so you may find it a little difficult to apply your hypnosis on him."

Sasuke just nodded as he and Logan unlocked their weapons from each other.

"You're the coolest dude I've ever seen, man !" Bobby stopped in front of Sasuke. " And that's coming from someone with literally 'cool' powers you know."

Sasuke blinked and gave him a blank stare.

"Oh, I forgot."Bobby held out a hand. "Name's Bobby Drake. Iceman."

For once, Sasuke decided to return the gesture. He clasped Bobby's hand and his eyes widened as he felt a bone piecing chill where their hands touched.

"Oops sorry. Hehe."

"Grow up, Iceman !" Rogue gave Iceman a light push and held out her own hand. "Here, Ah'll thaw it for ya. Name's Anna Marie by the way. Folks here call me Rogue."

Distracted by the sight of her red on black eyes, Sasuke could not withdraw his frozen hand before Rogue took it and Sasuke felt warmth return to his hand, followed immediately by a scalding sensation. "O ... Je suis desolee ! guess ah overdid it." She raised both her hands and forced an innocent smile.

"Please do not mind their jokes, Sasuke, we rarely get new additions to the school. Now, welcome to the X-Men." Xavior smiled and held out his own hand. Upon seeing Sasuke's wary expression, he tilted his head and grinned. "You already know what my mutant ability is. There is nothing dangerous with my hand."

A chorus of laughter.

"Wow wow … you mean we are allowing him on the team already ?" Jean asked.

"Well, we do have use for abilities like his." Scott pushed up his sunglasses.

"But … but …"

"but he still needs a codename right ?" Kurt finished for her.

"not that … just …"

"Don't worry, Jean. I trust the professor." Scott put an arm around Jean's shoulders.

"yeah … so do I … just … OK" Jean shrugged. "So what do we call him ?"

Scott glanced at the sword in Sasuke's hand. "How about … Blade ?"

"I think there's someone with that name already."Kat pointed out. "Some vampire hunter guy."

"Uh … Swordsman ?" Kurt suggested.

...

"Whatever." Sasuke waved a hand.

Xavior smiled and spun his wheel chair around. "Now, let Sasuke have some rest. We can discuss the details anytime."

"One more thing."Sasuke called out.

"Yes ?"

"Can I have my original cloths back ? I've been wearing the same pyjamas for a full day and a half"

* * *

What do you want Sasuke to be called ? Suggestions plx :)

Other comments are also very welcome.

- Star


	7. Daybreak 1

Let's turn our attention away from Sasuke for a while.

2stupid, yes he will :)

* * *

**Daybreak (1)**

A dim white glow from the faraway horizon illuminated the narrow entrance of the otherwise pitch black cavern.

Further in, indistinguishable from the surrounding darkness, a figure in a black hooded cloak sat cross-legged in deep contemplation, atop a metre wide, half metre tall stone platform. Around him were similar platforms arranged in a rough spiral pattern.

Now a glowing figure flickered into view on top of the platform directly in front of him. Eventually the image became clearer and less jerky. Bands of colour flowed up its body like the iridescence of oil or thin plastic films.

It was a man in a similar cloak, albeit with red swirling cloudlike patterns and no hood. His hair was light-coloured and spiky. Each of his pale grey eyes had concentric rings around the pupil, evenly spaced apart, the colour in between each brighter the further it was from the pupil. He had small piercings arranged symmetrically along each side of his nose, ears and chin. He also wore a black headband with a small rectangular steel plate at the front. Four parallel vertical lines and one long horizontal line across them all were scratched onto the plate.

"You called ?" The hologram asked in a deep reverberating voice.

"Yes. How goes the operation, Pain ?" The meditating figure asked.

"A little delay, but things are going as planned." Pain reported.

"A delay ?" The hood lifted slightly.

"Yes, the Toad Hermit."

"Of course. How much does he know ?"

"Not much. He has been neutralized."

"Just like that ? I thought he was your teacher."

"He was."

"Hmm. You never fail to surprise me, Pain." The hooded figure stood up. "Anyway, I'll be away for quite some time. In my absence, I trust that you will continue to ensure the success of our mission."

"If memory serves, being 'away' has never been a problem for you."

"Oh, this time I am really really far away."

One pale grey eye widened slightly. "Last I heard, you were off to fetch your great grandson, or was it your great great grandson ?"

The hooded figure stared back with what appeared to be a glowing red eye with three black claw like extensions projecting out from the edge of its pupil. "You are well informed. Though, that he is a direct descendant of mine is purely your assumption, no ?"

A moment of silence.

"What will you do when you have him ?"

Red Eye shrugged lightly. "That really depends. He has not really made any significant moves. It's as if killing his brother has fulfilled a big half of his life's purpose. He seems to be settling down with a local organization."

"He will likely come for you when he knows you are nearby."

"Let him. He is part of my plans, but he not my primary concern now."

Another pale grey eye widened. "Oh ?"

Red Eye leaned in closer to the hologram of Pain. "I have found a powerful Jinchuriki in this region."

Pain remained expressionless, but the tone of his reply revealed a mild mixture of surprise and awe. "You are certain."

"Yes. As you may have guessed, it is not a Tailed Beast. It is something more…" The red glow in the eye beneath the hood intensified with excitement.

"Do you need help ?"

"Not at the moment. In fact, if all goes well, the boy will lead me to it. Till then, I will prepare a way to handle this extraordinary specimen."

"I wish you good luck then, Uchiha Madara. Don't take too long."

"Same too you, Pain." Madara waved a long black sleeve as the hologram flickered, blurred and vanished, leaving the inner cavern in almost complete darkness again.

He sat back down into his meditative pose.

Now he stared in the direction of the cave entrance. "I'm impressed, how did you find me ?"

"Hmph." Silhouted against the dim white light outside was a tall muscular figure, easily twice Madara's height and several times his weight.

The man had long golden hair. His irises were gold too, like those of a fierce big cat. His rugged face was split by a wide feral grin which revealed glittering metallic shark-like teeth. He wore a tattered white T-shirt and equally worn down jeans.

"I caught your scent and followed it here." The giant approached Madara slowly like a tiger cornering what it perceives to be defenseless prey. "Whatever you did to fool the others, doesn't work on me."

"Ah, mental conditioning." Madara observed, not sounding intimidated at all. "You are Sabretooth, are you not ?"

"Ah, now we have a problem. You know my name but I don't know yours." Sabretooth stopped a few metres from Madara and glared down at the latter menacingly.

"Well, you can call me Toby." Madara suggested, still no hint of fear in his voice.

The cave shook with Sabretooth's laughter. "Toby ? … Tell you something, Toby … the Doctor and his people … they are all afraid of you … but what I think is …" Sabretooth brought his face close to Madara's hood. "… I think that's all bullshit. You are bogus, that's all."

"Well, if that's what you think …" Madara replied, not flinching at all. "What are you going to do about that ?"

"I'm gonna cut you open and see what you are really made of."

Before Madara could say anything, he heard a "snikt" and the next moment four long thin metallic claws passed right through his chest.

Sabretooth pulled back his claws and stood up, grinning down at the seemingly lifeless body lying at his feet.

"You know, you could have been more specific with your warning."

Sabretooth spun round and stared in astonishment at the figure of "Toby" standing between him and the entrance, appearing perfectly unharmed. No tear on his cloak, no blood.

"No difference, I know, but that would have been more polite."

Growling and shivering in anger, Sabretooth clenched another fist, and four claws shot out from the latter, just like the set he had stabbed "Toby" with, or he thought he had stabbed "Toby" with.

He took a step forward, then roared in pain as his right shoulder, arm and neck was engulfed in what appeared to be black flames.

"Shit, what the hell are you ?" Sabretooth shouted while swatting at his right shoulder with his left hand in an attempt to put out the flames, and only succeeding in burning his left hand as well.

Then, as quickly as it came, the flames dissipated, and the smouldering burns faded in seconds thanks to his healing factor.

"I'm … complicated." Madara approached Sabretooth. "Now, what do you say we put that aggressive streak of yours to good use ?"

* * *

See y'all next time and

Have a good day/night.

- Star


	8. Too Noisy

For the time being we'll call Sasuke by name.

2stupid, true, but here he doesn't really need to I think.

Hedatory, all in good time :)

TimDrakeFanatic, hmm …

**Too Noisy**

"Just so you know, I haven't said a word about joining you guys." Sasuke said as he walked behind the middle aged man in a wheelchair in front of him.

"Nevertheless, I can tell you have taken quite a liking to this place." Professor Xavior replied.

"I have only been to this country for two days." Sasuke reminded him. " Not much time to go anywhere else."

"Indeed." Xavior nodded.

Sasuke suspected that the elderly telepath was smiling. Respect for privacy huh. You can't really tell if a psychic has read your mind unless he or she tells you so. Well, at least the Professor is disciplined enough to refrain from acting on information obtained through psionic means until absolutely necessary.

Jean Grey, on the other hand, was another matter.

_I heard that,_ Marvel Girl's voice sounded in his heard, reminding him once again that the woman was walking right beside him, observing his every move and manner of speech.

He tilted his head and glared up at her. She returned with a superior smile.

If she were unaffected by his stare, he, on the other hand, felt something unusual radiating off of her. On the surface she wore the appearance of a young, attractive assistant teacher with a knack for dressing like a rock star. Yet when he looked deeper into her green orbs, he could almost see … something else staring out … struggling to free itself … burning …

"We're here." The professor stopped beside a trapezoidal doorway, and bent forward bringing his eyes closer to a lens like protrusion at the side of the door.

Where moments ago the corridor they had walked through was covered in pale orange wallpaper, brown carpet, and fine Georgian woodwork, now Sasuke saw that the ceiling, floor and walls around him were built of thick steel and stone. They had entered yet another of the X-Mansion's subterranean secrets.

The steel doors slid apart like those of a modern lift, to reveal a chamber the size of a theatre and shaped like the mold of a many-faceted globe.

A black walkway of smooth marble led from the entrance to the centre of this hollow space, where it broadened into a circular platform and rose at its extreme end into twin metre and a half tall 

obelisks which curved inward close to each other. Between them a metal headgear hung from two silvery cables connected to the tip of each obelisk.

It was all Sasuke could do to appear calm and nonchalant at the sight of the futuristic construction, and he suspected the Professor's well concealed smile just widened by a centimetre.

The latter glided forward and stopped before the two obelisks. He reached for the strange headgear and put it onto his head. There he sat motionless.

Sasuke watched him siliently.

"Cerebro amplifies my psionic abilities to cover almost the entire world." The professor had told him. "That is how we found you. If there is someone like you in the vicinity, I should be able to locate him or her."

Now Xavior suddenly looked up and gasped, and both Jean and Sasuke rushed to his side.

They could see that the professor's body was tensed, like someone who had been pinched on the shoulders from behind. His eyes were wide, staring far out at nothing. His expression was one of shock, then confusion.

"What's going on ? What do you see ?" Jean looked her mentor over in panic.

"Splintered ! He's … wait, he's not …" Gradually, the Professor calmed down, and he sighed.

"What happened ?" Sasuke asked, though he could vaguely guess what the answer would be.

"I touched a strange individual mind for a brief moment, too brief to gather anything from it. It was a fleeting presence. A presence that quickly broke up." Xavior gently took off the headgear.

"I don't understand." Jean stared curiously at the professor while Sasuke glanced down and frowned.

"Many locations … many forms …" Xavior tried to put the sensation in words. "All manifested at once."

"More than one person ?" Jean raised an eyebrow.

"More than one … fragment of a person." The professor propped up his chin on the backs of his two hands. A posture of deep thought. "Perhaps a normal phenomenon that surfaces only when we follow Sasuke's descriptions. An alternative explanation is that the subject has found an ingenious way to … nullify my telepathic probing ... in effect breaking down a recognizable waveform into noise."

"Do we really know what we are looking for." Now Jean looked over at Sasuke.

"I've thought about it for quite some time." Sasuke neither nodded nor shook his head. "To be able to dispel my illusory doubles. As far as I know that can only be done by someone who uses abilities similar to mine." At this point Sasuke paused, thinking whether or not he should explain what Chakra manipulation was, then decided to leave the lengthy expositions for later. Besides, if the X-Men wanted to know what he really was aside from a boy with 'mutant abilities' and a shady background, 

they could easily find out. "This person knows about me. He has noticed me. I don't know what he wants, what he does …"

"Could be working with Weapon X." Jean suggested. _Either that or it's Deathstrike's boyfriend_, _provided it's really a him of course_.

"Hmm." Sasuke of course had little idea what Marvel Girl was talking about, but he knew what he wanted to do. "I need to find him."

"Well," The professor had settled back to his calm, wise looking expression, and now prepared to leave the Cerebro chamber. "If you insist on tracking down this mysterious person, then it seems we have to do this the traditional way."

Sasuke nodded, then realized the significance of the last pronoun in that sentence. "I'll find him myself. There is no need to trouble yourselves."

"Oh, I have my reasons too." Xavior replied as he turned and glided towards the entrance, Jean and Sasuke following behind.

Xxx

Victor Creed growled as he heard another shrill but soft squeak from below his right. "Do you have to do that, Cain ?"

"Can't help it, Sabretooth." The heavily built man walking beside him shrugged his enormous shoulders. He was just as tall as Sabretooth, but looked twice as wide. The thick black body armour added to the impression of tremendous weight. "Anything that crosses me gets crushed."

"And anything that crosses me, Juggernaut," Sabretooth held up a fist and extended one claw. "gets cut open."

"Right, right, says the guy who got owned by a 'little weirdo'." Juggernaut whistled.

Now Sabretooth stopped walking. His fists were clenched tight and he trembled angrily.

The soldiers walking behind the two of them halted as well, and stared at Sabretooth with dread, expecting the latter to fly into a fit of bestial rage and slaughter them all.

They breathed a sigh of relief when Sabretooth unclenched his fist and put a foot forward. "Was fed up with people testing my healing, was all. And you, don't step on anything that can make noise again."

"Oh come on. It was just a coupla rats and lizards." Juggernaut lay a gigantic hand on Sabretooth's shoulder.

"You were making too much noise, you bucket head !" Sabretooth hissed. "What, I look away and you start felling trees ?"

"Oh, I could do that, you know, I'm the Jugger –"

"Just shut up, you nincomp-" Sabretooth cut short his own sentence and froze.

"You say that again, you … what … ?" Instinctively, Juggernaut stopped moving as well, as did the rest of the group.

Silence.

Then all of them looked at Sabretooth.

"What … ?" Juggernaut repeated curiously.

Sabretooth was sniffing the air and tilting his head about like a tiger sensing the approach of unsuspecting prey.

Now he grinned excitedly and held both his hands forward in a grasping motion, like a predator preparing to seize its victim. "Yes … he's here … the little runt."

The rest of the group gave exchanged blank looks, then Juggernaut recalled when Sabretooth had last used that word before.

"Oh no, Vic, that's not what we are here for." Cain waved a baton sized finger at Victor's face. "You leave Wolverine alone until we've done what … uh … Toby told us to do."

"To hell with that voodoo bastard." Sabretooth turned aside, leapt over a hedge and ran towards the edge of the forest, towards the open road.

"Arrr…" Juggernaut cursed and ran after Sabretooth, flattening bushes and squashing more lizards along the way.

Xxx

"Tell me, Logan, why do we have to move at night ?" Sasuke pressed his face close to Logan's back so that he did not have to shout to be heard over the constant, loud roaring.

"Hm … it's too noisy in the day." Logan stared steadily at the seeming darkness ahead, hands wrapped confidently around the steering handles of his motorbike. Even at the speed he was going now he did not need to switch on the headlight. Like Sasuke he possessed extraordinary senses. "Too many people walking around. Troublesome."

"You don't have to come with me."

"No problem, kid. When it comes to tracking down someone, I'm a whole lifetime ahead of anyone. Besides, Chuck wanted me ta … oh shit."

"What ?"

"Hold tight, kid, we got company."


	9. Brawl

So what happens now ? … what else XD

**Brawl**

He could hear that familiar mechanical rumbling now. It brought a tingle to every part of his body and drove him on.

By the time he burst out onto the open road in an explosion of twigs and leaves, he was bloodlust and rage incarnate,

Or so he thought.

"Hello … Bub."

His whole sight was overwhelmed by a strong white light shining directly onto his face. He held up an arm to shield his eyes from the sudden brightness, and was instantly skewered in the chest by what felt like an array of three long thin knives.

"See you … Bub."

He felt the knives withdraw from him.

Roaring in pain and anger, Sabretooth swung out one arm immediately at the short, hairy figure in a black leather jacket about to turn away from in front of him and leap away.

Xxx

From the bike, Sasuke watched in horror as the giant with long golden hair and a murderous countenance brought his own claws forward in a swift wide arc, slashing deeply across Wolverine's back, causing the latter to scream in surprise and fall forward, face down, onto the ground.

The tall man's own T-shirt was stained deep crimson from blood drawn by Logan's claws. There was, however, something odd about the stab wounds.

Instinctively he activated his Sharingan, which penetrated the darkness and saw that …

There was no stab wound

… or rather, the wounds had already closed.

"That's it, Sabretooth, you are not getting out of this alive !" With some effort, Logan propped himself up own his hands and knees.

"Now, now, you are not young anymore, so why don't you just lie down for a while, father !" Sabretooth raised his clawed hand and prepared to plunge those lethal daggers down straight through Logan's back,

And the next moment he felt an intense heat rush towards him, and looked up in time to see a human sized fireball hurtle towards him like one of those computer generated images of the sun.

"What the h –"

Instinctively he leapt backwards but the fire ball caught up with him just as he neared the trees. It engulfed his entire upper body and forced him to hold his breath. It knocked him off balance too, and he crashed backwards into the undergrowth, spreading the fire on his body to the surrounding vegetation. It did not burn as painfully, persistently and horribly as the black flames created by that voodoo wizard … whatever he was … but now he was being burned all over his head, chest, waist, back, and arms. The resulting disorientation and pain was not some localized injury that he could just shrug off in a second.

In fact, a normal human would have been done in after being hit full force by the attack, not to mention recover from it, but after a few coughs and a grunt, Sabretooth stood up, ignoring the still burning hairs all over his body. The fire had destroyed his T-shirt, exposing his stony abs and gradually fading burn wounds. Against the orange blaze of the burning trees and bushes behind him, he rose like a monstrous shadow out of hell,

And saw a boy with neck length spiky black hair standing beside Wolverine's bike and staring back at him with deep red eyes.

"Let's see, there's only you, me, and Wolverine." Sabretooth narrowed his gold, tiger like eyes. "And a couple of idiots back there. So, the only logical conclusion …" He stepped out onto the pavement again and extended both sets of claws.

Not the least bit intimidated, Sasuke looked at the crouching figure of Wolverine, and then back at Sabretooth. "Is he really your father ?"

This question was, of course quite unexpected for the Weapon X assassin. "And what does that concern you ? You want the inheritance or something ?"

"If you are father and son, why are you killing each other ?" Sasuke's usually expressionless face tilted slightly as certain unpleasant memories came back to him.

Sabretooth chuckled and stepped forward, brandishing his menacing claws. "'Cause that's what we d –" He stopped in his tracks with a jerk, eyes wide, and then looked down, and cursed.

Behind Sabretooth, claws plunged into the taller mutant's back and hip, Wolverine shouted, "One more time, kid !"

Sasuke pressed his hands together and once again formed a set of hand seals which he had learned even before he awakened his Sharingan. Like Wolverine and Deathstrike, Sabretooth could rapidly regenerate from injury. Now if he could turn up the heat and overwhelm the brute's healing factor from a safe distance …

"Gaton – Hougakyou no – " ( Fire release – grand fireball - )

Before the new fireball was fully formed, Sasuke felt something large and heavy slam into him like a charging elephant knocking over a road sign.

He rolled with the momentum and smoothly stood up, thanks to his shinobi training, and looked up where the impacting force had come from.

With a yell, Juggernaut charged again at the diminutive figure, who appeared to stand motionless.

Now he was a metre away from the boy, and still the latter did not move.

And now his fist came down like a falling boulder on the boy's head,

And the latter vanished.

"Whu –" Juggernaut skidded to a halt and looked around in confusion.

Gradually, he felt an added weight on his head, and glanced up to see Sasuke high kneeling on top of his dome like helmet and pointing a long thin sword with a knife like tip at his face. "Tell me, is there a way to stop you without killing you ?

"Who the fuck do you think I am ? I'm the Juggernaut, brat !" Juggernaut brought his titanic arms up towards the top of his head. "Nobody can stop me !"

Again, Sasuke vanished, and Juggernaut's hands clapped harmlessly at empty air.

Landing behind the armoured giant, Sasuke swung his sword horizontally at the former's lower thighs.

There was the loud ringing of metal striking metal. Sparks flew, and a superficial slash appeared on the back of Juggernaut's thick black greaves.

Now Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he quickly leapt aside to avoid a counterattack from Juggernaut. That swing of his chakra charged sword should have done more damage than scratch Juggernaut's armour. Was it made of some special metal, like Wolverine's claws ?

Nevetheless, a little damage was still damage.

"Aaah ! you actually hurt me ! this is it for you, brat !" Juggernaut spun his heavy body around and crackled his massive fists,

And then grimaced in shock as a bolt of lightning struck him explosively on the chest.

Shortly after, it began to rain.

"Storm." Sasuke smiled.

"I felt the updraft from the fire. What's going on ?" The white haired woman drifted down gently beside Sasuke.

"Ambush." Sasuke replied.

"Nobody zaps me !" Juggernaut stormed towards the two of them, smoke belching out from where his helmet and armour opened to show his face.

"Well, apparently I did." Storm rolled up her already marble white eyes. "Can't anyone just … stay down ?"

"Stay down ? Ya know who I am ? I'm the Juggernaut, bitc-"

Juggernaut halted and gasped. His eyes glanced about jerkily. He swatted and punched profusely at the air around him.

"That should hold him for a while, go help Logan." Sasuke was standing motionless and staring at Juggernaut with eyes that glowed bright red in the darkness of night.

"Huh ? What did you do to him ?" Storm looked on incredulously as Juggernaut began rolling around in circles for no visible reason.

"Testing his stamina." Sasuke kept his gaze on Juggernaut. He held on tightly to the hilt of his sword, which he pointed at Juggernaut, now somersaulting around in a crazy earth shaking break dance."Don't worry, I'll finish him off if I have to. Go help Logan."

…

The rain was gradually reduced to a drizzle as the fire died down.

Wolverine and Sabretooth stared each other down, claws held up at their sides.

For a while they had been gutting each other like crazy. The pavement beneath their feet was awash with blood, even though no visible wound could be seen now on their bodies. No matter how many times they ripped and impaled each other, their rapid regeneration, feral instincts and bones laced with virtually indestructible adamantium prevented any one blow from being fatal.

Wolverine glanced down. His jacket was torn and tattered, full of holes and dangling pieces. He grunted and took it off.

Taking advantage of the fact that Wolverine appeared to be paying attention to his cloths rather than his opponent, Sabretooth pounced on him, arms outstretched, then stumbled forward in surprise as Wolverine leapt back and smacked his jacket on his rival's face.

"Happy choking, bub." Wolverine quickly stabbed his claws into Sabretooth's again and again.

And again, this was not enough to kill Sabretooth, as the latter shot his hand forward and closed it around Wolverine's neck, who proceeded to jab his claws into the arm in response as he was lifted off his feet.

"Hap – cof – happy chokin, runt !" The next moment, a bolt of lightning bore through Sabretooth's head, causing both him and Wolverine to jerk violently before flying apart and falling backwards onto the ground, smoke trailing between them.

The jacket wrapped around Sabretooth's face was blasted into a shower of burning black leather strips and smoke which cleared to reveal his charred, seemingly delirious face.

"khkhuh … I had it under control." Wolverine coughed as he tried to sit up.

"Right …" Storm chuckled. "you are welcome, Logan."

"You hit me too … khhkhuh." Wolverine gave up and just lay down.

"Oh, you'll be fine." Storm knelt beside him and smiled down at his smouldering face.

"Yeah, so is Sabretooth, unfortunately." Wolverine sighed. "And he's the bigger one."

"No kidding." Storm looked over at where Sabretooth lay, or rather, where he now stood. The latter staggered towards the both of them.

"You know … I'm really fed up with this." Storm's eyes glowed phosphorescent white. "Can't you guys just stay dow –"

She felt long thin strips of metal wrap themselves around her neck and pull her backwards. She frantically shifted her footing to keep her balance.

And then a familiar female voice whispered in her ear. "Hmm … you wished I were dead, didn't you, Ororo ?"

"Yuri …" Storm muttered. The phosphorescent glow faded from her eyes.

"Huh, what is this ?" Wolverine grunted and tried to sit up again. "Some Weapon X all star show down ?"

"Nope …" Sabretooth grinned sadistically, showing his savage shark like teeth, as he bent over Wolverine. "We still missing the leech girl and the teleporter kid. We'll have fun with them after we are done with you !"

"Leave them alone, they're just kids !" Storm shouted.

"Aw, shut up" Deathstrike pointed a claw at Storm's mouth. "Vic, stop playing already. Just kill him ! I mean … rip off his face or something."

Wolverine shot his hands up and caught Sabretooth's wrist just as the tip of the latter's claws came within an inch of his eyes.

…

Sasuke cursed and hastily summoned two shadow clones, which he sent at Juggernaut, who was now wacking himself senseless and shouting strings of profanities at nobody.

Just as Sasuke was about to dash to Wolverine's aid, he felt the shadows shift around him, and he spun round to see Juggernaut charging at him like a mad rhino. Where did the brute get so much energy from ?

More importantly, what happened to the shadow clones and illusions that Sasuke was using to wear him down ?

Then Sasuke's eyes widened as recognition hit him like the lightning from his Chidori. It had happened again.

He leapt up and held on to the back of Juggernaut's helmet by charging his hands and feet with precisely directed Chakra . Ignoring the latter's protests and clumsy attempts to dislodge him, he perked himself up and tripled the concentration of Chakra in his Sharingan with which he scanned the surrounding forest.

"I know you are there !" Sasuke shouted. "What do you want from me ?"

No visible response. Only the rumbling of thunder clouds, the howling of the wind, the growling of Sabretooth and Wolverine struggling against each other.

Whoever found him did not want to be found by him. No, the other shinobi had intervened twice now. Certainly he or she knew that Sasuke would have inferred his or her existence now.

"Show yourself or …" Sasuke reached over and pointed his sword down at Juggernaut's face. "I will kill him !"

Still no response.

"I am serious !"

As he looked around trying to spot any strange figures hiding among the trees, his vision was blurred, and he lost his grip on the surface of the smooth helmet.

"No …" an intended curse came out as a breathless whisper.

A distance away, Wolverine stopped struggling.

Again, the darkness claimed him.

* * *

Too brief I know XP

Must be the weather today.

Next chapter is in the works. See y'all next week,

or maybe the week after that ... or maybe many weeks after. XDXDXD

- Star


	10. Daybreak 2

This chapter is a super-spoiler. ( Naruto Manga chapter 396, 397 ). Crazy idea I'm having. Nice excuse to take a long break too, I just realized XD

scienceboy, thanks for pointing that out :)

**Daybreak (2)**

Dark storm clouds rolled and folded over each other. Only a dim white light shone through occasionally down onto the heavily forested plateau below, in the middle of which flowed a river, more than a hundred metres wide.

The waters in the river rushed rapidly towards the edge of the plateau, where it poured down abruptly into a mist-shrouded abyss. From all over the waterfall, the strong winds drew a constant spray of water out into the air.

On each side of the waterfall, carved into the side of the plateau and rising halfway above the cliff, were the gigantic stone statues of two young warriors, facing each other and holding their left hands before there chests with the index and middle fingers pointing up and the other digits curled. The both of them wore armour made up of tightly interlocking bands covering their trunks, hips, upper thighs and upper arms. Each had a solemn expression on his face.

One of them had long spiky hair drooping down way past his shoulders. Over his left shoulder and back was a smooth long cape which was draped over his right hand as well.

The other warrior had long straight hair flowing over his shoulders. Sitting atop his head, appearing as small as a fly compared to him, was a boy dressed in a white gi and a blue kilt, and bearing a striking resemblance to the stone effigy of the other warrior standing before him, even right down to that stone-cold expression, though the boy was shorter in stature and appeared younger.

"The Valley of the End ?" A cold reptilian voice hissed from behind the boy. "Why ?"

"If you are too dumb to figure it out, Orochimaru, you are not worth telling." Sasuke stared blankly ahead.

"Talking back to your master already hmm ?" the voice sounded weirdly amused. "Let's see, this was where the renowned Uchiha Madara fought with the First Hokage, not long after the Hidden Leaf village was founded." Orochimaru paused for a moment. "… ah, I see, another battle occurred here, between you, and your closest friend."

"Naruto." Sasuke muttered.

"Yes, yes, he tried to stop you from leaving the village." The voice chuckled. "Last we met, he was still trying to bring you back. I doubt he has given up yet."

"Bonds." Sasuke shook his head. His expression softened slightly.

"Yes, bonds ... Speaking of which, I have a surprise for you, Sasuke-kun !"

Sasuke felt heavy, thick, smooth coils of something alive tighten itself around his body. Alarmed, he stared down to see what appeared to be the tail of an overgrown python wrapped around him, pressing his legs together and his arms against his chest. No matter how he struggled against the constricting appendage, he could not free himself.

"It's bondage time !" Orochimaru hissed excitedly.

"You sick-minded monster !" Sasuke cursed, eyes wide.

"Hehehe …" came Orochimaru's sick-minded reply.

"Release him, vile serpent !"

Sasuke looked up towards the source of the sudden thundering voice. He could feel Orochimaru halt his squeezing in surprise as well.

There was no other person in sight. Noone … except for the colossal statue of Uchiha Madara.

For a while Sasuke stared at the face of this distant relation of his, the former head of the once glorious Uchiha clan, now immortalised, in stone.

And, Sasuke remembered sadly, all that was left of his clan was nothing … but himself.

Then, Sasuke gasped in shock as the statue's wide glaring stone eyes began to glow red, like ore heated in a blast furnace. The glow intensified, until the three claw like extra pupils in each eye became more and more distinct, and Sasuke felt Orochimaru's tail loosening itself from him.

As the image of the Sharingan formed completely, the red glow overtook all of Sasuke's vision …

Xxx

Sasuke sat up abruptly in the darkness, and took in a deep gulp of air. For a while he trembled, eyes wide, his breathing hurried and shallow.

Gradually, he calmed down and looked around.

He was sitting on a long bench in a small room whose walls, floor and ceiling, and even the bench themselves, set into the wall, was covered in uniform white tiles, like a toilet, or a strange laboratory. Only, this room was completely devoid of the utilities that would be found in those facilities.

One wall was missing. In its place were closely spaced columns of green light which separated the room from a corridor outside, along whose sides were lines of similar rooms, all of them relatively well lit by white phosphorescent lights which further gave the impression of a scientific research facility.

"More likely a high-tech a prison." Sasuke sighed.

Opposite him, on a stone bench, leaning unconscious against each other, were Logan and Ororo.

"Don't worry, they'll be fine. It was just sleeping gas." A weird male voice. Deep, aged yet sometimes vibrant as a child. "My special recipe. Colourless, odourless … barely detectable even by the Sharingan. "

A figure in a black cloak walked right into his field of vision, seemingly from a corner in the cell which, moments ago, appeared empty.

The figure continued. "I intended to use it in that mansion you had been staying in, but Sabretooth had to go and fight you people in the middle of the road, so I had to change my plans."

Sasuke kept silent and motionless, staring past the figure.

"We've met once before, as enemies, but don't worry, I'm no longer your foe. I brought you here to tell you something important."

Sasuke did not reply. It was hard to tell if he was deliberately ignoring the strange figure, or just ...

"Not interested, I see. Maybe you'll pay attention if I say it like this, it's about Uchiha Itachi ..."

At the mention of his brother's name, Sasuke glanced sharply up at the stranger.

"There we go. Firstly, You won, it was very close though. If the X-Men hadn't taken you in, it could have taken you a week or more to recover. You shouldn't be so wreckless with your life."

"Why would you care ?" Sasuke huffed.

"Ah, why would I care ? I guess I should seriously introduce myself. Like you, I am a living, breathing Uchiha ... and the man who knows the truth about Uchiha Itachi."

Now Sasuke's eyes widened again. He stared up in as the stranger reached up for his hood and slowly lifted it …

… to reveal a bright red Sharingan eye.

At the sight of the latter, Sasuke felt a wave of intense heat rise involuntarily through his body and gather in his eyes. Despite the unbearable searing pain, Sasuke could not do anything other than sit and stare hard at the stranger,

Who appeared to halt his own action in surprise as he saw the young boy's own Sharingan activate, and then immediately the three commas in each of the latter's eyes lengthened and expanded into scythe like shapes which rooted themselves into the now dwindling pupil, forming one large pupil shaped like a glaive with a hollow centre, whose three blades spiralled gently out across the entire bright red iris.

"… Impossible ! Ghaah !" The stranger screamed as his shoulder, right arm, and hood burst into black flames.

Now Sasuke felt the control of his body return to him, and he bent down, covering his eyes with his hands. His groans of agony was occasionally drowned out by shouts and curses, and occasional shuffling noises coming from the stranger standing beside him. Gradually, the noises died down, and he felt something hot drip down from his eyes onto his palms. He pulled his hands away from his face and looked at them.

They were dotted with drops of blood.

"What the hell was that ?" He stuttered in horror. His eyes had dimmed back down to a glassy black colour now. The pain was fading. In its place came a significant fatigue. Whatever happened, it had drawn more than just blood from him.

"The Amaterasu that Itachi implanted in you." The stranger replied. "Itachi, Itachi, Itachi, even in death he never ceases to amaze me. Even planning for a situation like this."

Sasuke looked up at the stranger who now stood calmly before him. The black flames were gone, together with the stranger's black cloak, revealing tattered black vest, pants shoes and bandana, and white socks. He wore an orange oval mask covered in rounded ridges which spiraled in towards a hole at the approximate position of his right eye.

Sasuke he recalled when and where he had met this stranger. So he was an Uchiha as well ? Was this real ? What did he want ? What happened to those black flames ?

" What … what are you saying ?"

"He equipped you with his own jutsu, as a last ditch effort to kill me. Or perhaps his intention was simply to keep me away from you." The stranger explained. "I assume he set things up so that the sight of my Sharingan would automatically trigger 'Amaterasu' to activate. It's what you would call a 'fail-safe', although he only got as far as the 'fail' part." The stranger paused for a while. "Look, Itachi did something to you before he died, right ?"

Now Sasuke remembered the final moment before his brother died. Itachi had touched his forehead, and mumbled some cryptic message to him.

"… I have no idea what you are getting at."

The masked stranger shrugged. "You fought him. You know how he can effect the flow of Chakra in another person's body with a tiny, innocent looking gesture. Somehow, at the last second, he transferred all his eye techniques into you."

Sasuke shook his head slightly. "… that makes no sense … what are you trying to say ? Why would Itachi want to -"

The stranger chuckled, both in amusement and exasperation. "You still don't know ? It was … to protect you."

Sasuke cringed for a second. "… pr … protect me ? … is that supposed to be funny ?"

The stranger waved a hand. "No, not at all, Sasuke. See, you knew so much about your brother, yet you knew nothing at all."

"… you keep fucking with me … I'll kill you !" Sasuke clenched a fist. There was now a harsh edge to the tone of his voice.

"I see talking with you is going to be difficult. I guess I understand … some weirdo comes to you and starts saying all these things …" The stranger continued, undeterred by Sasuke's threat. "but I assure you, I speak the truth. You asked Itachi yourself, about the man who helped him that night."

The stranger bent forward and brought his face closer to Sasuke, a gesture which caused the boy to forget his annoyance, and instead feel an inexplicable chill run up his spine. "It was me. Uchiha Madara. I know everything there is to know about Itachi. Of course, he died without realizing just how much I know."

"Enough !" Sasuke shouted."I don't care anymore ! Let me out of here and never come near me again !" He was shivering now, wide open eyes glancing jerkily around, but not once looking in Madara's direction.

Madara stood and spread his arms. "I think you should … no, you have to question me. It's your mission … your duty … after all, you did intend to seek me out, did you not ? Now finally we meet, so listen to me … let me tell you about him, this man who risked everything to protect the shinobi world … the Leaf village, and most of all, his little brother. You need to know, what it is … that your brother Uchiha Itachi lived and died for !"

* * *

Yeah, we all need to know, so stay tuned to NarutoMangaReturns or bleachexile

I probably won't be updating until Madara finishes his story and leaves Sasuke alone. ( Probably, that is. Suggestions are very welcome. And yes, we are still open to codename suggestions for Sasuke. )

See y'all then.

Have a nice day/night.

Star


	11. ToaNF: Who is Pein ? Filler

So while Madara tells Sasuke his grandfather story, I have something to share as well.

A filler, obviously. ( yes, by "filler" I also meant loosely connected 'essays' about my favourite Manga/Anime. There are spoilers. Well, which fanfic does not have spoilers ? )

Yeah, I'm sort of a Stephen Jay Gould wannabe of pop culture XD ( A moment of silence … )

**Thoughts of a Naruto Fan: Who is Pein ?**

This is one hotly discussed topic.

If you go to Youtube and search for "Pein"/"Rinnegan"/"Akatsuki leader" you can practically see an entire "archive" of the whole history of this discussion in the form of fan videos, starting from those posted right when the "Akatsuki leader" first appeared as a cool-looking hologram during the ceremony to extract the Ichibi from Gaara.

Since then, peculations as to his identity have included almost any character in Naruto who were sometimes considered simply because he looks cool enough, or because he "matches" the appearance of the hologram. Even a "Naruto from the future" was considered.

Funny thing is, ( I believe around the time when images of Pein started leaking out ), somebody found a picture of Pein and labeled it as a "Kazekage". Another identified it as "Naruto's father" XDXDXD

Really no offense to the authors of those videos. I know we are all doing it for fun ;)

So, what do I think ? Well, I believe that if you have followed the Manga up to this point, then Pein's true identity becomes quite obvious. If I am wrong about this, I think I'll still be quite close, and if I am not, well, this is fan_fiction_ dot com, no ?

As we know, right before Jiraiya died of a fatal stab from one of Pein's spears, he realized Pein's true identity. From his expression and tone of his exclamation, you can tell it was a very significant revelation.

Was it Nagato ? From the sight of his Rin'negan, that was what Jiraiya assumed when he first fought Pein. Also, Pein calling the Toad Sage as "Jiraiya Sensei" seems to confirm that. That is, until Pein calls upon his other bodies, and everyone realizes that the body that Jiraiya had been fighting in the beginning was that of Nagato's friend Yahiko. Towards the final moment of the battle, Jiraiya simply stops referring to Pein as Nagato. "That's it ! I know who you are !" rather than "Stop this madness, Nagato !" or something to that effect. Nagato's personality appears to exist in Pein, but if the latter were simply a boy from the Hidden Rain Village who had attained tremendous power thanks to his Rin'negan, then I doubt the author would bother with the suspense and confusion.

Also, the other bodies all turned out to be Shinobi that Jiraiya had encountered in his travels. Does it have something to do with Jiraiya himself ? Creepy, but unlikely. Any _elder_ Shinobi who travels widely would have found those bodies familiar.

So what do we know of Pein ?

Most of what we know concerns his Doujutsu, the Rin'negan, variously translated as "metempsychosis eye", "Samsara eye" etc. If you can read Kanji, you realize "wheel return eye" can also mean "Reincarnation eye". Why does a being need to reincarnate itself ? To continue to exist, of course, in a new body. Though not explicitly stated, we can infer that Pein has the ability to take over another person's body, even possessing several at once. Hence, by acquiring a younger physical form, Pein can live forever. It is not difficult to extrapolate that the entity called Pein maybe older than we first thought.

All the bodies with the Rin'negan share their vision, and as with the Six Paths of Pein, share a single intelligence. Thus, in terms of consciousness, all Rin'negan users are actually one person. Until another Rin'negan user shows up who is clearly not Pein, that statement holds. This raises a question: how is the Rin'negan passed from one user to the next ? If all Rin'negan users come under the control of one mind, then wouldn't the inheritor or predecessor's mind get messed up ? Unless, of course, if the previous user ceases to exist before the next one is born or acquires the Doujutsu, but I cannot think of any good reason why such a powerful being can simply die just so the next generation can be born safely.

So what I believe at this point, is that there has always only been only one Rin'negan user. Unless I have missed a page of the manga, I can confidently say that contrary to how some fans like to categorize it, the Rin'negan is NOT a Bloodline Limit.

Here are some additional points:

The young Nagato, then already appearing as a Rin'negan user, killed an enemy ninja in defense of his friend Yahiko. Jiraiya was astounded at how he managed to do this even, seemingly, without any prior martial arts or combat training. Apparently, Nagato did not remember how he did it.

Secondly, Pein keeps referring to himself as a god. A god who will change the world. Perhaps, a god who has already changed the world more than once in the past. This is not an idle boast. His telepathy gives him influence over other Shinobi, and his mastery of a technique which creates clones of other Shinobi complete with the original's abilities, to certain specifications, shows that his power of chakra manipulation is far beyond any other Shinobi in the Narutoverse.

Also, Pein appears to have a broad understanding of the political situation in the Shinobi nations. "Every faction will have its own way of justifying its wars." How many of the wars has he witnessed ?

So far, Uchiha Madara has not shown the full extent of his power, but I suspect that his authority over Pein is simply due to the fact that he is the creator and mastermind behind Akatsuki, and not because he is any older, stronger or wiser than Pein. I'm not sure if he even knows who Pein really is. ( On the other hand, the Kyuubi recounted that members of the Uchiha clan can wield Chakra more terrifying than even its own. Probably, the Uchiha ancestors had more than human origins ( likely a Hyuuga fell in love with a demon, or got possessed, etc etc). That puts the "invincible immortal" Madara in the same level of existence as Pein. )

So who is Pein ?

Ironically, I believe, Jiraiya had the answers all along.

The Rin'negan is the very same Doujutsu "said to be possessed by the Rikudou Sennin ( Sage of the Six Paths ) ... the founder of the whole Ninja world ... whose knowledge and skills gave birth to Ninjutsu itself."

( Gasp )

( Stun )

( Tilt )

( 'huh ?' )

( 'I think so too !' )

( 'You're kidding, right ?' )

( 'Who the hell's this Rokudou guy ?' )

No, seriously, if I remember correctly, in the Manga, Jiraiya actually said that Rikudou Sennin's Rin'negan was rumoured to have the power to save or destroy the world.

This, together with the fact that his Doujutsu is closely associated with reincarnation, strongly implies that the Sage of the Six Paths has, in a sense, somehow returned to observe the current Shinobi world and make just that decision.

It's Judgement Day !

- Star


	12. Filler: ToaNF2: The Wuxia Connection

Hi guys :)

Nitroglycerin, lol XD

Darksentinant, you are right about Pein's immature behaviour. It doesn't appear like he's hiding any deeper schemes behind a more childish personality like Madara. Regarding the Rin'negan, I'm not the only one who has observed that it is drastically different from the other Doujutsu. That's all I'll say. Hehe, Likely, Masashi Kishimoto is now getting very frustrated by us fans trying to anticipate him ;)

* * *

Now, some of you are probably wondering how come I have so much time. Well, let's say that for the time being the folks here are not following their usual schedule.

Another thing you may have been wondering, is what were Nightcrawler and Shadowcat talking about in the beginning of chapter 2 ?

The films whose titles are translated into English as The Swordsman and Swordsman 2, the latter starring Jet Li. Yes, they exist. The "poem" was actually the theme song for the series.

(type youtube URL)/watch?vgYK1JbDrP4&featurerelated

So what's all that about ? Read on.

**Thoughts of a Naruto Fan 2: The Wuxia Connection**

Wuxia ( Mohaap in Cantonese ) is the Mandarin name for an old East Asian action fantasy tradition. Since it has no exact Western equivalent, I cannot give a satisfactory definition of it in English. Fortunately, we are Naruto fans here, and most likely anime junkies in general, so I believe we will get the idea if I say that the element of Wuxia is very strong in Naruto ( for another good example, think Dragonball ). Even the Marvel Universe has it to a certain extent.

Now, obviously, no one has definitely categorized those as belonging in the Wuxia genre, the following seems purely my own observations.

Look up the word on Wikipedia ( which you will probably do anyway ), and it will tell you that "_Wǔxiá_ stories have their roots in some early _yóuxiá_ (游侠, "Chinese knight-errant") and _cìkè_ (刺客, "assassin") stories around 2nd to 3rd century BC" ( Youxia actually means "wandering chivalrous ones" ). Actually, there is a third kind of characters that is mentioned often in the Wuxia literature. They are the Shu Shr. This name can be variously understood as a "sorcerer", "person who studies techniques", more accurately, as "master of jutsus".

Now you begin to see the parallels. Combine the concept of an assassin/spy/guard etc for hire, and someone who is well versed in what the common people perceive as "magic tricks", add to that the general background of "warring clans", and you get a Narutoverse Shinobi.

The similarities can actually be described in detail. Any work of action fantasy would involve characters possessing abilities and attributes that are not seen in the real world, and would naturally have to explain where those abilities come from. Final Fantasy 7, for example, has its materia, lifestream, Mako energy and so on. In Wuxia, the main basis for the "superhuman" powers of its heroes is exactly the same as in Naruto, i.e a life force inherent in humans that can be manipulated to achieve various effects, mostly applied in attack or defence.

Chakra is Sanskrit for "wheel" and in traditional medicine refers to the series of major acupoints situated along the midline of the human body. I am not sure why this word was chosen for the life force in the Narutoverse, rather than the more common martial arts terms, such as prana, ki or pneuma. Nevertheless, we can see that the characteristics of "chakra" are the same as the latter.

If you have watched a Wuxia film before, you would notice that some of the characters had to go through tight hand signs before they unleashed their powers ( unlike in Kung Fu films, in which the fighting is made to appear as realistic as possible ). The results could become quite flashy. An invisible force field, an explosion, things come out of the ground, or the target loses control of his limbs, so on and so forth. Looks familiar ? The mystical effects of Mudras, or hand signs is a commonly encountered pop culture concept in Asia. It is extensively incorporated into Wuxia action sequences, although, strangely, no Wuxia author or film director has bothered to label those hand seals consistently. Perhaps this little detail is so ubiquitous in Wuxia that they see no need to point it out to the audience.

Systemized sets of techniques, which could potentially be learned by any character in the story, is another staple of Wuxia action. This is also found in Naruto and similar Anime ( like DBZ ).

There is even a set of basic "jutsus" which almost every combatant in the story could perform. We are familiar with the ones which appear in the Narutoverse: shunshin ( body flicker ), bunshin ( split body ), Henge ( transformation ).

In Wuxia, the common ones are:

Hinggung ( light effort ), which is commonly understood to allow the combatant to temporarily defy gravity. At low levels, the user can jump higher than ordinary people. At higher levels, the combatant can practically fly -.0

Dianxwe ( point cavity ), striking a particular acupoint on the victim's body to shut down the flow of subtle energy in that area, thus crippling the victim momentarily. Similar to Jyuuken, except that the Wuxia version does not require a special Doujutsu to execute, and understandably does not look as awesome as illustrated in the Anime.

Neigung ( internal effort ), allows the practitioner to regulate the conditions within his or her own body. Usually used to heal oneself, or to protect the bodily organs from damage. Can be thought of as a counter to Jyuuken. The Neili ( internal strength ) varies from character to character. Some have such high Neili that opponents who strike them get injured instead.

Genjutsu, or Hwaanshu, in Wuxia is often described as a form of sorcery, though they usually turn out to be based on the same principles as the other techniques.

Of course, aside from these, we know that there are some "cool ultimate" Jutsus which only some characters can use, from Kakashi and Sasuke's Chidori, to Pein's Six Paths. Similar "legendary" techniques play an important role in Wuxia stories as well.

In Swordsman 2, for example, one of the older characters can use the "Star Sucker", which drains Ki energy, as well as any other sustenance that can be absorbed, from his victims, turning the latter into shriveled corpses.

His rival, who was also his brother, mastered the "Sunflower Classic", which made him ridiculously powerful, ( he tore a group of swordsmen to pieces in an instant ), but which also, ( gasp ), turned him into a beautiful looking woman XP.

The protagonist of the film, ( played by Jet Li ), aside from using the normal sword techniques, also learned the "Loner's sword" from an elder swordsman. This seemingly allows him to counter his enemy's weapons incredibly effectively.

Usually, the hero of the story becomes relatively powerful by mastering or developing one or some of these techniques, similar to how Naruto developed Tajyuu Kage Bunshin and Fuuton: rasenshuriken.

Even real life systems like Taijitsuen, Eight Trigrams Palm, or Iron Palm are described, though modified to appear more fantastic than they actually are.

For another Wuxia film which looks, sounds, and feels uncannily like Naruto, try the Storm Riders. ( get the original version if you can, the one shown in the US appears to have many important scenes removed. )

Now, you are probably trying to recall every plot device in Naruto and see if it has a counterpart in Wuxia. Here let me examine some.

Tailed beasts. This label is of course unique to Naruto. However, legendary creatures can actually be found in any fantasy story. Wuxia stories abound with demons and scientient monsters. In Storm Riders ( based on a Hong Kong comic ) alone there are two: the Fire Kirin, the Gold Monkey. Louis Cha's Shen Diau Xialw ( "Divine Condor Heroes" ) features an intelligent condor who guides the protagonist to the tomb of a dead warrior. A more extreme example would be Suc Saan Tzune ( "legend of Shu mountain", also originally a Hong Kong comic ), which has an ancient demon which incorporates his victim's blood into his own physical form and a creature which poisons anything it touches ( thus wherever it has been is devoid of life ), just to name two which are among the main characters.

Bloodline Limit. This one is definitely unique to Naruto. In a sense, it is closer to Marvel's concept of mutant abilities, or other superpowers possessed by "post-human beings". So far I have not found an exact Wuxia counterpart to the Byakugan or Sharingan etc, yet.

Shinobi weaponry. These appear similar to weapons featured in Wuxia stories probably due to early mutual cultural influences between China and Japan. The Kunai, for example, appears similar to hand thrown darts used by ancient Chinese warriors. Sasuke's chokuto, a more primitive version of the katana, is identical in design to swords used by Chinese soldiers from the Han to the Tang dynasties. The design of the Chinese Miaudau ( "grass shoot sabre/sapling sword" ) is influenced by the Nodachi. So on so forth. There is no "explosive note" mentioned in any Wuxia story that I have heard of, but magical paper talismans come close enough.

Political organization. The very environment that people like the Youxia, Ts'ke and Shu Shr thrived in was the same as that which allows the Shinobi world to prosper in the Narutoverse. The Feudal lords or Warlords employed skilled mercenaries, assassins or sorcerers to accomplish tasks which their subordinates could not do. The Shinobi clans and Hidden villages were also practically the same as the pugilistic sects, factions and strongholds frequented by Wuxia heroes.

Ninja Academy. This is unique to Naruto as well. Obviously one of the few "modern" aspects introduced into the Narutoverse.

As a side note, Jiraiya's name is derived from Garaiya ( "thus I come" ) which is the name of a folk tale character both in China and Japan. The Chinese version is described as an outlaw and a do-gooder. He is a Youxia with a knack for vigilantism, much like a wandering Batman. Everytime, before he strikes, he would send an "anonymous" warning note to the villain, or to the authorities, saying, "Wa lai ya !" ( "Here I come !" ).

* * *

Till next time.

Have a nice day/night :)

-Star


	13. I Have a Plan !

Ah, time for a new chapter. Sorry for the late update and the OOCness in my fanfics XD

**I Have a Plan !**

"Itachi …" Sasuke fell on his hands and knees, staring down at his own reflection on the white tiled floor. He had a petrified expression on his face, as if he had just gone numb from being viciously kicked all over. "… all this time."

"To protect peace in the Leaf Village, and most importantly, Uchiha Sasuke … yourself … " Madara concluded his story, "He lived as a fugitive, a criminal, a traitor, praying for the release of death. He traded his pride for disgrace … and your love for your hatred and even still, he died with a smile on his face. He left the name of Uchiha to you, and deceived you all the way to the end."

For a while, Sasuke's thoughts drifted back to that final moment of the battle when he last saw his brother, and then, his eyes widened. "You were there ? You saw him ?"He gasped.

"Relax, my child." Madara assured him. "His body is in good hands. Regrettable, though. A shinobi of his caliber, gone just like that."

Sasuke felt the older Uchiha bend down over his head. "You are his greatest legacy, Sasuke. It now falls on you to continue his work."

Sasuke was still too wearied to look up. "What … are you talking about ?"

A momentary pause as the air itself seemed to become heavier in anticipation of the impact of Madara's reply. "Take his place as a member of the Akatsuki !"

"Go screw yourself !" Sasuke blurted out, shaking his head. "I am not a criminal."

"Interesting huh. A week ago you wouldn't have cared. You were so focused on killing your brother," The air lightened as Madara stood upright again and laughed. "but that's over now. Thanks to Itachi you have acquired a new power. However, it is still not complete. I … am the only one who can help you unlock the final stage, and with it, to rebuild the Uchiha clan. Think about it while I go and capture that Jinchuuriki which I came here for."

Sasuke heard a clank to his left, and reflexively reached up to that side with his left hand and caught the hilt of his sword.

"Wait –" With some effort, Sasuke propped himself up with the weapon and stood to face Madara, who, unfortunately, had just vanished. He cursed and in his anger attempted to activate the Mangekyou Sharingan again, and then immediately regretted it as a throbbing sense of nausea assaulted his head and eyes. "aaahhh !!" Sasuke staggered back, held his face in his right hand and took forceful deep breaths, which alleviated his exhaustion only minimally.

A little at a time.

"Whoa kid, are you alright ?"

Sasuke spun around in a start, nearly losing his balance, at the source of the voice, to see Logan smiling back at him. "You are awake. I thought …"

"Immunity to most poisons." Wolverine shrugged gently, taking care not to wake Storm, who was leaning on his side. "Sleeping gas is like incense to me."

Sasuke staggered over to his bench and slowly sat down. "You were awake the whole time ?"

"Yeah. Though experience tells me it is better to fake unconsciousness rather than just getting up straight away. Don't want the enemy pouncing on me before I know what is going on." Logan whistled. " Still, that little history lesson was quite unexpected."

"You heard the whole thing." Sasuke sighed. "Must have sounded like a load of crap to you I guess."

"Actually, I do understand what you guys were talking about, and I find it very very interesting." Logan rubbed his spiky chin and grinned, and then settled back into a more solemn expression. " Sorry about your brother."

Sasuke remained silent.

"So, what's a Jinchuuriki ?"

"It's a …" Sasuke searched for the right words to explain. "A Jinchuuriki is a human with the essence of a powerful demon sealed within him or her. I know someone like that, but he's somewhere far far away now, and as much as he wants to find me and bring me back to our village, I doubt he has followed me all the way across the ocean, so the dope should be safe."

"Any kind of demon ?" Logan rubbed his chin again and frowned, staring hard at the floor as if it were crawling with centipedes.

"So I heard …" Sasuke felt the sudden change in the tone of Logan's voice, and he tensed as well. "What's wrong ?"

Logan met his gaze with wide eyes. "Jean !"

"Ms Grey ?" Sasuke gasped as he the revelation hit him. That weird sensation when he looked into the assistant tutor's eyes … those attacks on the X Mansion …

The sudden stiffening of Logan's body jolted Ororo from her sleep. She raised her head and coughed. "What happened ? Where am I ?"

And then her vision cleared and she looked across the room. "Oh, hi, Sasuke." And then she noticed the white tiled wall behind the boy, and she looked around the room. "Wait, isn't this ... " Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped in horror "… oh no !"

"Right, welcome back." Logan wrapped an arm around Ororo's shoulders. "Now …" He looked up at Sasuke again. "Both of you stay here and keep each other alive, while I look for a way to get you out."

Ororo sat up and glared at the burly man sitting beside her. "What do you mean, 'stay here ?' Where are you going ?"

Sasuke got up and walked over to stand in front of the columns of green light which blocked their exit from the cell. Slowly, he pushed a foot towards one column. The moment the forward edge of his shoe touched the lime green light, it blackened and spewed out a small puff of smoke. Heat from the laser penetrated the covering of his shoe and burned the toes beneath. Quickly withdrawing his foot, he held up his sword and swung its tip through three of the columns. Small sparks flew where 

they met the lasers, but the latter remained unchanged. "I see." He smiled in defeat and walked back towards his bench. "Don't take too long, Wolverine."

"What ? What is he talking about ?" Ororo stammered in confusion as Wolverine got up and walked forward to stand facing the laser barrier from two metres away.

"Don't worry, kid, I've been doing this kinda thing before you were born." Wolvering grinned confidently and excitedly as he crouched in preparation for a sprint. "Right, here goes -"

With a roar, he dashed through the laser barrier.

xxx

From his latest hiding place within the canopy of a nearby tree, Madara peered out into the courtyard of the X Mansion.

It was night, and there appeared to be noone outside the building. He stared at the Xaviour Institute campus for a few minutes, his Sharingan eyes taking in all its details from this final angle.

Satisfied, he sat down on the thick branch and looked up through the foliage at the starry night sky, as his mind leisurely worked out a plan to lure his prey out without alerting her friends.

His train of thought was broken by the sight of an albatross circling the air several metres above his tree.

"You know, a sea bird hovering above the middle of a forest looks awefully suspicious."

The albatross partially folded its wings and descended down through an opening in the canopy, to land gracefully on the tree branch in front of Madara. It looked abnormally large for a sea bird, and its claws gripped its perch with an uncanny dexterity. On its beaked face it wore an unsettling expression which reminds one of a bird which had died but whose eyes still moved and glared.

Most disturbing of all, each of its eerily phosphorescent grey eyes had three concentric rings around the pupil.

"Ah, now you land right in front of me." Madara crossed his arms. "After giving away my position, you are going to hide here and watch in amusement as I get owned by all the X-Man."

The bird's eyes glowed and the bird emitted a deep, distorted human voice. "They have not noticed. Even if they have, I doubt they are a match for you."

"What, you have cockroach summons in there too ?" Madara pretended to shudder. "Do you have Rin'negan-controlled midge summons watching every member ?"

"That is not necessary." The bird replied in its serious tone. "We still have Zetsu, though we must admit that his range is a bit limited."

"Uh huh …" Madara appeared to look around him in a paranoid fashion. "And how come you have time to do this ? Aren't you supposed to be going after the Kyuubi ?"

"One of the advantages of having multiple bodies." If the bird had lips, Madara reckoned that it would be grinning wickedly now. "Besides, you need a bait to lure your prey out, do you not ?" The bird tilted its head and raised a browridge. "Now you owe me another one."

"You are evil." Madara settled back into his original cold, dark tone. "I like that."

"The feelings are mutual." The bird returned the "compliment".

xxx

" gngnghhh !" Logan growled as he crouched waiting for the horrendous blackened parallel cuts and gashes all over his body to close up.

"You need help ?" Sasuke asked casually. "I could give you my sword."

"Hehe, funny … " Logan coughed, then looked up with a start, tensed and extended his claws.

"For once, I was joking -" Sasuke began.

"Quiet, I know." Logan hissed and sniffed the air. "Someone's coming."

All three of them kept silent.

Then, gradually, they heard the faint footsteps approaching from the far end of the corridor. For a while it produced vague but increasing crisp echoes. And then, abruptly, it stopped.

"Hey you !" Shouted a gruff voice.

"Oh man …" Logan turned lazily to face the source of the voice.

"Halt ! Stay right where you are ! Drop the knives and put your hands in the air !"

"Sorry, I can't drop them." Logan raised his arms nonchalantly. "Look, I promised Chuck that I won't kill anyone … so … why don't you keep your gun, and we can talk this over …"

"I said DROP the KNIVES !" The voice shouted again.

Logan sighed in exasperation and flicked his claws about. "I CAN'T ! SEE !"

An then there was a reverberating bang, and Logan jerked backwards as his forehead exploded in a flash of smoke and blood.

Sasuke stared in shock. Ororo screamed.

Logan just swore and wiped the blood from his forehead. "0n o4 87ch !" He roared and was about to charge at the soldier.

"Wait !" Sasuke called out.

"What ?" Logan turned towards him, and then jerked to a side and grimaced in irritation as the soldier shot him in the arm.

"Don't kill him ! Bring him here ! I have a plan !" Sasuke finished quickly and then winced slightly as Logan was shot in the knee.

"Right, right …" Logan waved a hand and leapt out of Sasuke and Ororo's field of vision.

* * *

( See y'all next chapter.

BTW, after writing "The Wuxia Connection", I Googled the Chinese characters for Shushr. Turns out Shushr is the Chinese name for WoW Warlock. Now articles about Shushr/Warlock are all over the Net. I went "wtf wtf 00" for a few minutes and then I realized the Shushr in Chinese legend had a bad rep too cos their powers were a bit like what we call witchdoctors."

Also, Narutoverse Doujutsu do have parallels in Wuxia folklore. There's the famous Third Eye/Heaven Eye which allows you to see the past and future and faraway events. There's also Yinyangyan ( shade-light eye, more appropriately "interdimensional eye" ) which ... uh ... allows you to see ghosts XD

Have a nice day/night.

-Star)


	14. Confrontation

( OMG, TimDrakeFanatic's prophecy came true 00 … )

myth buster, how would he know ?

2stupid, hmm ... I am not sure how that can be arranged properly, but it's possible. thanks :)

**Confrontation**

A few grunts and screams, plus some gunshots later, Wolverine reappeared, dragging the soldier towards the front of the cell by the legs.

The latter was in an identical outfit to the group who tried to sneak in on the X Mansion. Desperately clawing the floor, he strained his already hoarse voice to shout for help, yet only managed gasps for air, as if he were in the process of being pulled down a tar pit.

Letting go of his legs, Logan knelt down and rolled him over to face the ceiling. The soldier stared up at the furry, rugged face with an expression of absolute terror. His chest no longer pressed against the floor, he began squeaking for his life. "P – Please let me go ! I've got a wife and kid ! And … and …"

"Yeah, yeah …" Logan rolled up his eyes. "Everyone has been saying that. Even when it doesn't make sense." He waved his claws to emphasize his irritation. The soldier, on the other hand, got the wrong message and his face went another shade paler.

"Stop scaring him now, Logan. If he dies of fright, I will burn all your hair off !"

The soldier jerked his eyes towards the cell where the voice was coming from. Behind the columns of lime green light, there stood a boy dressed in what appeared to be a loose fitting shirt and a blue kilt. He had long spiky hair, and glowing red eyes.

The soldier's face was now literally bone white.

"Now, let's see …" The three characteristic commas emerged from the edge of each of Sasuke's pupils. "You, will disable the barrier, show us the quietest route out of here, take us to the fastest carriage you have, with a driver, and then after that you will go stuff your head in a pile of shit and forget that any of this ever happened. Understood ?"

The soldier gulped, unable to peel his gaze away from the Sharingan. "Um …" he began in the subdued, breathless voice of one who was being hypnotized.

For a second, all four of them remained silent and motionless. Then, with an impatient, "hmph …" Logan waved his claws in the soldier's face again. "Just get us out of here, take us to the fastest transport you've got, with a pilot, and then go jump down a river somewhere. Need we repeat ourselves ?"

"N – No, Sir …" Came the soldier's instinctive reply, with no hint of the usual panic or resistance.

"Good, you try something funny, and I'll throw you down the river myself." Logan faced the cell and smiled, "See, the old method is more efficient."

"Whatever …" Sasuke shrugged. "If this doesn't work, you could still use your limbs to block the green light, while Ororo and I rush out through the opening created."

"Hm … funny." Logan rubbed the fast vanishing scars on his back.

Xxx

Sleepless summer night.

Being used to telepathic contacts with the people around meant that being temporarily unable to feel that psychic rapport was a very uncomfortable experience.

To Jean Grey, it was terrifying. As she tossed and turned in her bed, her mind wandered and conjured up nasty imaginary scenarios one after another.

"Calm yourself, Jean. They will be fine." Came an elderly male voice.

"Professor, why didn't you let me go ?" Jean thought back.

"It's not safe." The voice replied. "I have a … premonition …"

"So who's imagining things here ?" Jean chuckled bitterly.

A few loud sharp taps drew her attention abruptly away from the telepathic conversation, and she sat up with a start, to see the silhouette off a large bird perched at the ledge of her open bedroom window.

The bird's eyes glowed a phosphorescent blue-grey, the various shades arranged in concentric circles around each pupil. In its beak it held a small hair thin object which gleamed in the moonlight.

Slowly, keeping her eyes on the strange creature, Jean got up from her bed and walked over towards the window. As she approached the bird, she got a clearer glimpse of the object it was holding.

One of Ororo's special lock-picking hairpins.

"Where …" The bird jerked its head back, and Jean lowered her voice to sound as non-threatening as possible. "Where did you get that ?"

The bird tilted its head and stared silently back at the red-haired psychic. The latter, without showing it, tried to read the bird's mind, but instead got a jumble of contradicting thoughts, as if she were randomly scanning the minds of more than one person.

With a hoot, the bird pushed itself out of the window with its webbed feet and spread its wings.

"Wait !" Jean called out and dashed forward but by the time she reached the window, the giant seabird was already out in the air, far out of her reach, unless …

Bending forward so that her head and shoulder peeked out of the building, she hopped lightly, and drifted gently out through the window, like a mermaid in pyjamas swimming up through water.

The albatross hovered over the Institute campus for a while, and then descended and landed in the outer edge of the courtyard. Jean brought herself down gracefully three metres behind it and pointed an open palm towards it. "There, I've got you. You can't run away now."

To her surprise, the bird's body convulsed and then exploded into a cloud of ash and smoke, which gradually dispersed in the night breeze, leaving nothing but the hairpin on the pavement where it stood.

"What's going on ?" Jean muttered to herself with a slight frown.

"I'll tell you !"

Jean looked up towards the source of the voice.

From behind a tree at the edge of the courtyard, a black figure emerged and stepped out into the moon light. It was covered head to toe in a black hooded cloak. "You are coming with me !" the figure sauntered towards Jean, and as it got closer, she could make out a glowing red eye peering out from underneath that hood. The crimson orb looked extremely familiar to her.

"Sasuke, is that you ?" Jean narrowed her eyes. "No, you are not."

"Hmm, I could have convinced her I'm someone else. Now why didn't I think of that ?" The figure thought aloud. "No matter, now she's out, I'll just grab her and run …"

"Hold it right there -" Jean placed a hand on her hip and took a step back. "You are not referring to me aren't you ? No, wait, first things first … who the hell are you ? If you are with those Shiar Enlightenment wierdos, I am so throwing you outta here."

"Well, yes I was referring to you." The figure took a corresponding step forward. "As to who I am, take an 'informed' guess, Ms Jean Grey."

Jean held a fist to her chin and stared sideways at the figure. "You …" She raised an eyebrow, "you are the mysterious guy Sasuke was searching for. You two are related."

"Indeed, though it's more like I was searching for him." The figure bowed slightly, tilting its head up to keep its penetrating crimson gaze on Jean. "Uchiha Madara."

"He's not in." Jean yawned in a visibly exaggerated manner. "What do you want with me anyway ?"

"All will be explained in time," Madara replied. "Marvel Girl, or should I say … Phoenix …"

At the mention of that name, Jean cringed for a while and then forced herself to relax again. "You know what ? Why don't you wait here, and I'll go talk to the Professor about this."

She turned around and gasped in shock to see Madara standing right in front of her again.

"There is no time for that. You must come with me, immedia -" Madara bowled over as an invisible force slammed into his chest and knocked him off his feet.

"Don't … ever … pop up … behind me … without warning !" With a flick of her hand, Jean sent Madara hurtling backwards, limbs flailing in front of him, towards the wall of the X-Mansion's main building. He hit the wall with a weird flop, as if his body were made of cloth.

"Now that's better." She completed the move with a grasping motion in the same hand. "And you can forget about teleporting away. I am not letting you go until you tell me exactly what is going on."

In response, Madara pressed his hands together and hurriedly performed a few Mudras, so quickly they appeared as a blurry sign language. A soccer ball sized sphere of fire erupted above the tip of his fingers. As soon as it materialized, it flew straight at Jean's face.

The seasoned X-Man dropped immediately to a high kneel, an arm held up instinctively. A second later, sure that her hair was not on fire, she lowered the arm and looked up. Madara was no longer pressed against the wall.

She felt a sharp metallic tip against the back of her neck.

"Let's do this quietly." There was now a heavier air of menace in Madara's voice.

"Of course." Jean smirked.

Madara's visible eye glowed in shock as, against his will, his outstretched arm curled up inwards and brought the tip of his Kunai ( throwing dagger ) towards his own chest.

Slowly, Jean stood up and spun round to look Madara in the eye. "Now, shall we talk ? Or do you want me to rip everything from your mind ?"

"Do try." The three commas in the iris of Madara's exposed Sharingan eye swiveled in and elongated to join up with each other and form a triangle with curved edges, while a red dot appeared in the centre of each bulbous corner. From the middle of each edge of the triangle a thick black band ran outwards into the edge of the iris. "Let's see how great those mind powers of yours really are, Marvel Girl."

A veil of utter darkness descended over their surroundings.

Xxx

They came to a clearing the size of a basketball court in the middle of the pine forest surrounding the underground Weapon X facility. In its centre was parked a small black helicopter.

"Weird place for a landing spot." Logan stared hard the cockpit of the aircraft as he, Ororo, Sasuke and the soldier walked briskly towards it. "Where's the pilot ?"

"I am the pilot." The soldier replied flatly as they reached the door of the aircraft. He pulled it open and motioned for the other three to climb in.

Before anyone could react, Logan bounded up the foot support and stopped halfway through the door. There he sniffed the air around the passenger seats.

"What are you doing ?" Ororo, who was standing right behind him, frowned.

Abruptly, Logan spun round and ran right into her, wrapping an arm around her and pushing her backwards by several metres. "Get back !"

"Wha –" Ororo stopped short as her back hit the ground, squeezing the remaining air out of her lungs.

She felt her face warm up as Logan threw himself on top of her. "Logan, this isn't the time to –" And then she saw Sasuke sandwiched between her and Logan, with an equally stunned expression on his face.

"Logan, what the h -"

The rest of the sentence was drowned out by a deafening explosion accompanied by a flash of orange light from somewhere behind Logan, a rush of hot air along her sides, and the sensation of being pounded on her back by a wrecking ball.

The next thing she noticed was the smoke and blood trickling over Logan's shoulders and a numbing pain in her feet.

"Logan ?"

"I'm alright." Wolverine huffed and with some effort hauled himself over to one side, allowing both Sasuke and Ororo to sit up and stare in disbelief at the flaming wreckage of the helicopter.

"Poor guy." Wolverine coughed, nodding at the burning corpse nearby. "Probably never saw it coming as well."

"They sacrificed their own man just to kill us ?" Ororo shook her head. "I don't get it …"

"Hn." A slight movement behind a tree at the edge of the clearing caught Sasuke's attention. "Logan …"

"Yes, I smelled it." With some effort, Wolverine pushed himself up and eyed the surrounding woods. "Probably waiting for the bomb to go off before closing in."

The former Weapon X agent stopped turning and stood facing one particular tree. He smiled and extended his claws. "Getting smarter huh, Sabretooth ?"

"Or you just gotten stupid." From behind said tree, a tall muscular man in tattered singlet and jeans and sporting a long golden mane stepped out.

From behind nearby trees, vague figures in identical vests emerged and pointed their weapons towards the centre of the clearing.

Under the dim moonlight and glow from the fire behind him, Logan counted twenty gun barrels in all. He leaned back slightly and whispered. "Hey kid, you fast enough to take them all out ?"

"Possible," Sasuke scanned the trees with his Sharingan. "though I don't think we should act that rashly."

"Right." Logan nodded. "You passed the test."

"Whatever …" Sasuke staggered over to behind the broader man. "I assume that if we stay behind you, we should be safe."

"That's a very big assumption there, kid." Logan chuckled dryly. "The old man gets no peace huh."

"Whatever you're planning there, it's not gonna work. These aren't your average cheap mass produced rifles." Sabretooth leaned confidently against his tree and crossed his arms."This is the end for you, runt."

"Yeah, but unlike you, we have friends." Wolverine crossed his own arms and called out,"Ain't I right, Colossus ?"

And then came a faint but resounding answer from deeper within the forest. Resounding, and firm as steel.

"Right you are, comrade !"

* * *

Next chapter will obviously have the X-Men doing most of the action.

Yeah, I know, Madara hasn't shown his true power. Nobody knows his true power.

Also, I am assuming Marvel Girl is capable of preventing her enemy from teleporting/phasing away.

Have a nice day/night

-Star


	15. Still Confronting

_Once again the stars are right, and the Old One awakens to tread the Earth once more !_

Yeah, I'm still alive.

Thanks for all your reviews :)

**Still Confronting**

At once, the soldiers spun round towards the source of the voice.

At first it was a faint blue flickering, something shiny reflecting the dim light of dawn.

And then those flickerings broadened and joined with the distorted reflections of other surrounding objects: the soil, the grass, the trees, to form the vague outline of an extraordinarily tall and muscular man, with youthful, rugged features and body proportions that would put most renaissance sculptures to shame.

He wore a set of thin black tights, stretched to their limits due to his largish frame which rivalled that of Sabretooth, as well as yellow boots and a yellow belt with the characteristic red circular buckle with two bold lines intersecting across its surface, which identified him as an X-man.

Most spectacular, however, was his skin, a layer of shiny silvery metal the thickness of which was impossible to guess from a glance. The moveable parts, like his neck and elbows, were protected by gracefully and tightly overlapping bands of the same organic steel, like a cross between the exoskeleton of an insect, and the the lorica segmentata of ancient Roman soldiers, only far more formidable than either. Even his jet black hair, short and straight, gave the impression of tough steel bristles.

Colossus slowly approached the line of soldiers, who followed the walking metal giant with the sights of their rifles, their trembling fingers already curved around their triggers.

Sabretooth stepped forward and spread his arms. "Hold it, nobody does anything until I say so !"

His subordinates were, of course, quite obedient , and they did understand that a being like Colossus was probably impervious to the kind of projectiles fired by the weapons they were holding.

On the other hand, as the figure of Colossus appeared closer and closer to them, waste of ammunition became less and less important an issue compared to the

After taking a few leisurely steps towards the line of Weapon X troops, Colossus's cold, calm expression expanded to a fierce glare, and he charged forward with the force of a speeding train.

Fumbling for the Auto switch, the soldiers opened fire.

"Stop ! I said stop, you idiots !" Sabretooth flew in a fit of rage.

His roar was drowned out by the din of twenty rifles spraying their rounds intermittently and those shells bouncing harmlessly off of Colossus's body with a bone rattling clatter.

"Aaargh !" Completely fed up, Sabretooth stomped towards Colossus, arms upraised and claws fully extended.

Ignoring the ricochet of bullets, Sabretooth swung his claws at Colossus's face, to have his wrist caught in mid-swipe by large metal skinned fingers, and then howled in shock as metal skinned knuckles slammed into his chest like a wrecking ball being swung into the pavement. With his free hand he grabbed Colossus's fist and the two of them held that position for a while, each standing his ground while attempting to force the other into the ground.

At the sight of this, the soldiers lowered their rifles and watched on, at a complete loss as to what to do, and also curious as to which of the two heavyweight combatants would prevail.

"You retards ! What are you standing there for ? Go get the other three !" Sabretooth shouted over his shoulder.

The twenty of them turned round, and immediately felt a slight breeze, accompanied by wisps of smoke that blurred their vision, and a few sparks rising from beyond their fields of vision. They looked down to find that every one of their rifles had been sliced cleanly in half at the middle, the barrels, bolts and circuitry clattering onto the ground even as they stared and gawked in astonishment.

"Holy sht"

"Whoa !"

"Saw that comin'"

"No you didn't"

Some dropped the remaining parts and quickly examined their own hands , while others took longer to recover from the shock.

There was a whistle, followed by the chuckle of a middle aged man, "OK, that was fast."

"They weren't looking." The nonchalant reply of the boy who was being complimented.

The soldiers looked up to see Logan, Ororo and Sasuke,

now standing just four metres away from them.

If you have tried eating spoonfuls of raw salt or sugar, you would find that after a while it becomes weirdly bitter.

When panic and shock reach a certain level too quickly, they break down and other impulses, like curiosity and wonder, take over.

"Wow, did you guys just do that ?"

"Impossible …"

"Well, there's noone else around."

"How would you know that ?"

"…"

"Hn." Sasuke faintly grinned in amusement and raised his sword. "You guys want to know how I did it ?"

Everyone fell silent, except for the grunts and curses from the ongoing struggle between colossus and Sabretooth.

Certain that he had everyone's attention, Sasuke flashed on his Sharingan and lowered his sword, holding it horizontally in front of his face so that anyone who was staring intently at the finely forged blade would also be drawn to his unusual eyes.

Within seconds, twenty uniformed bodies went limp and collapsed onto the ground where they lay motionless, eyes half closed.

"I guess they really have no resistance." Sasuke sighed. "Good. I hate to have to use lethal force against strangers."

"Yeah, but now they can't ask for our autographs." Ororo chuckled.

"Autographs ?" Sasuke glanced at her quizzically.

"Never mind." Ororo rolled her eyes and then stared up the two tall figures still wrestling with each other a distance ahead of them. "Peter needs our help."

Logan had walked up to the two of them already. "How ya doin, Bub ?"

"Ah, you know …" Sabretooth replied in strained voice, "it's quite … impossible for me to die right now. .. aarh !" the slight distraction allowed Colossus to kick him hard in the groin and press him down by a significant distance. "Once I am finished with… tinman here, It'll be your turn !"

"We'll see." Logan shrugged and tilted his head. "Hold on to him for a moment, Peter."

"Am holding." Colossus did not sound as exhausted as Sabretooth was. The world's strongest mutant stood immovable like a bronze statue and held Sabretooth's arms in an iron grip while the latter twisted and jerked in vain to regain an advantage.

And now Logan turned to Sasuke. "Do your thing, kid. One more time." And then he leapt away to stand beside Ororo behind Sasuke.

With a nod, Sasuke went through a series of hand seals and blew unusually hard through a half ring formed by curling an index finger. Out through the other side of the ring a rapidly expanding ball of flames burst forth to engulf both Colossus and Sabretooth in an explosion almost like the one that blew up the helicopter a while ago.

Colossus was, of course, was the one less affected by fire of this temperature, and he calmly held on to his struggling opponent, positioning Sabretooth in such a manner that the latter took the full effect of the supersized Grand Fireball Technique.

A few bloodcurdling screams and utterances of profanities later, Sabretooth stopped struggling and fell back onto the ground, roasted and charred beyond recognition safe for the general outline of his 

hulking physique. His magnificent mane was reduced to smouldering stubs, and here and there burnt sheets of matter flaked off to reveal even more burnt and blackened matter beneath.

"Is he dead ?" Ororo asked as the four of them crowded around and looked down at Sabretooth's seemingly lifeless body.

"Nah, he'll be back." Logan replied matter-of-factly as he knelt down and prodded the body with his claws, "but he won't be bothering us for a long while." He stabbed the body at several points and then stood up again. "Sorry, Scott, made you watch and do nothing." He called out loudly. "Again."

Right on cue, the X-Jet turned visible on the clearing between where the four were standing and the remains of the helicopter. Its side door was open and a young man sat at the steps dressed in the same attire as Colossus, though nowhere as buff as the latter. He wore a one piece red rectangular goggle over his eyes. Though looking down sideways to hide his expression, he nevertheless gave a thumbs up in Logan's direction.

"Let's go home." Ororo stretched her arms and turned towards the recently landed stealth aircraft.

"You and Sasuke go on home. Peter and I have some work to do."

"Huh ?" Ororo glared at Logan in surprise. "What is that ?"

"Nothing dangerous." Logan gave a mischievous grin. "For the two of us that is."

"Oh no, no no no." Ororo was unconvinced. "We're not leaving without you."

"Have fun Logan." Sasuke waved nonchalantly. "Don't overdo it." He turned and walked towards the X-Jet.

"What ?" Ororo glared at the boy in disbelief.

Both Colossus and Wolverine laughed and before Ororo could catch up to them, headed off towards the well hidden entrance of the Weapon-X facility in the distance.

xxx

"No ! I'm not … I'm not psycho !" Marvel Girl cried and clutched her head, willing the goblins to go away.

They didn't. Not for a long while. A whole crowd of them, pointing their crooked fingers at her and sneering with their bat-like faces, jeering and hurling unspeakable insults at her, peeling away her mental resistance layer by layer. Their colours were wrong. Instead of the usual green, they were all dark red, with black eyes and teeth, which made them all the more frightening, especially in this pitch black world where there seemed nowhere to run, nowhere to hide from them. Even the moon itself appeared to be mocking her.

Soon, their cruel laughter and killer remarks took on the exact effect of long knives stabbed into her. As the blades increased in length and breadth, Jean could almost feel like the apparitions around her had succeeded in bleeding her to death several times over.

And among them stood familiar figures. People she knew, who at some point in her life had doubted her sanity and made it clear that they did. People like …

"No, go away, you are not real !"

"Ah, but I control time and space in this world, so they are as real as I say they are." The masked figure of Uchiha Madara emerged out of the darkness to stand at the edge of the crowd, looking down at Jean with that terrible red eye.

For a while the latter appeared to sob, burying her face in both hands. Then suddenly she looked up with a wicked grin. "So this is how you want to play it huh ?"

Before Madara realized what was going on, he was caught off balance by a long thorny tendril that had grown out of nowhere to wrap itself around his left foot.

Frantically, he shifted his right foot to balance himself, and then looked up to find that the entire scene had changed from a pitch black, empty space to a lush, gloomy forest with gigantic trees whose pale brown trunks, roots and myriad branches twisted and wound serpent like towards the thick deep green canopy above.

Several trunks ahead, stood a red haired woman dressed in a suit of scale armour that appeared very familiar to Madara.

"You … this … " The elder Uchiha stammered.

"Interesting place." Marvel Girl looked around and marveled at the monstrous size and abundance of vegetation, and then back at the masked figure staring up at her with a posture that hinted at his inability to believe that she had just turned the tables of this psychic duel against him. "An important battle, I presume ?"

"How …" Madara stared wide eyed at the woman now wearing the armour of his former rival. "No …"

"And you lost …" Jean bent more of her psionic prowess towards probing her opponent's mind. "Am I right ?"

"I will not lose !" Madara pressed his hands together in an attempt to form a hand seal, even as more tendrils attached themselves to his body and began to drain his chakra energy away. "I am invincible !"

"OK …" With a flick of a finger, Jean let the entire forest loose on the defiant immortal warrior.

xxx

Standing atop a branch on a tree at the edge of the forest, a shadowy figure in a black cloak gazed down at the two figures seemingly locked in an intense staring match in the middle of the courtyard below.

He held up a fist close to the front of the big neckband that covered the lower portion of his face, and pointed its index and middle fingers straight up to the sky. The phosphorescent grey glow in his eyes intensified, making the faint concentric rings around his pupils appear more prominent.

The eyes narrowed as they observed attentively the exchange of energy between the red haired woman and her masked opponent. "Hmm, not good …"


	16. Awakening

AceTrainerTe, very likely, Naruto n friends are going to come look for Sasuke.

2Stupid, usually I'd have a very elegant answer for that, but now I'll just say it's all Plot-_no_-Jutsu XD

Sorry for not writing more of Phoenix n Madara's powers. Truth is, we don't know what their powers truly are. Also the version of Pein being shown here is totally made up.

**Awakening**

"Huhhh !" With a yell, Madara slammed a palm onto the nearest flat surface, which was the skin of the tree branch he was standing on, and summoned the black goblins back into the astral plane. He sent them after Marvel Girl just as three gigantic tree roots each the thickness of a man's waist crashed down upon him.

Jean saw the packs of goblins charging up her tree and diverted her attention away from Madara to telekinetically hurl the monsters away by the dozens.

As she was concentrating on defending herself against Madara's desperate counter-attack, she felt something sharp and hard pierce into her right thigh. The offending projectile was small and light, and the resulting pain was just a bit more than that caused by a long wooden splinter.

The really unsettling effects came immediately after that. As she was about to bend down to see what was going on, she suddenly felt sudden flashes of suffocating heat run over her body, followed abruptly by intervals of bone piercing cold.

She could not move and realized that almost her entire body had turned numb. Worse, she was finding it harder and harder to focus her psionic powers and she was fast losing her hold on this section of the astral plane.

The bark covering the tree branch that she was standing on cracked and flaked off. Out of the corner of her eye she saw leaves fall. Black, shriveled leaves. She looked up. It was happening everywhere. The trees were withering, collapsing down onto the ground with the series of crunches.

Gradually, the canopy above cleared away to reveal the light blue sky of dawn. The dead trees were crumbling further into piles of black ash, which even then continued to shrink and thin out, until they were all blown away by the wind,

Leaving Jean Grey and Madara in the middle of the courtyard of the X-Mansion.

Jean was high kneeling, eyes looking down, unable to get up due to the unexplained paralysis. She wanted to reach around her thigh to remove whatever object had penetrated her flesh there, but even her arms refused to budge.

Now she heard footsteps on the grass approaching her.

Madara stood in front of the kneeling Marvel Girl. With that mask on, his expression was unreadable, and Jean didn't want to know either. She shook visibly as she tried to overcome her paralysis.

"Ah, what happened, Marvel Girl ?" Madara remarked. "Seems you are not well."

"What …" Jean managed to form a few unsteady words with her throat and lips. " … are you gonna do now …"

"Relax. You will know when the time comes." Madara held Jean's chin in a hand and lifted her head up so that their eyes looked into each other. "Now, go to sleep."

"N … no."Jean's voice was a hoarse, labored whisper now. She stared back at Madara's single uncovered eye in defiance.

Madara did not reply. He took advantage of Marvel Girl's current weakness to once again peer into her mind.

Ordinarily, hypnosis was an effortless affair for a Sharingan user, but something within this red-haired woman just refused to yield.

And resistance had to be snuffed out.

Madara looked deeper and deeper through Jean's eyes. Past those green irises, into the widening pupils,

Pupils which shone with a blinding fire.

Madara leapt back and shielded his face with his wide sleeved arms to protect his eyes from the glare.

When he lowered his arm and looked ahead again, he saw Marvel Girl stand up as if nothing had happened.

As his vision quickly adjusted to the darkness again, he saw that both of her eyes were now large and wholly glassy black in colour, with a tint of red where they reflected the light of the surroundings.

There was a subtle change to her expression. While before she had only been trying her best to outdo Madara, this woman, or what appeared to be a woman, now standing before him, was out to tear anything that came in its path to pieces, and revel in it too.

"Phoenix …" Madara could hear the uncertainty in his own voice. He had encountered legendary creatures before. Why does this particular one instill such fear in him just by the simple process of taking over its host ? Was it really that powerful ? Fleeing was an option, but pride would not let him.

Phoenix, in the form of the possessed Jean Grey, tilted its head and regarded the cloaked figure standing before her.

Instinctively, Madara closed down his Sharingan. Not much use.

Now those large black eyes widened slightly. "I KNOW WHO YOU ARE." Her voice was like a chorus, melodious, yet dreadfully overwhelming to the ear at certain points. "I KNOW WHAT YOUR INTENTIONS ARE."

"We … we can talk …" Madara began.

"YOU WANTED MY POWER !" Pheonix bellowed. "NOW YOU SHALL HAVE SOME !"

Without warning, Jean Grey's body began to glow , as if it were on fire. The light grew so intense that looking at her was like staring at the sun in the middle of the morning.

And just as the sun emitted heat as well as light, Jean's body erupted in white hot flames. If one could endure the blinding glare and look directly at her, it would be a wondrous site. As the flames grew, not only did she not suffer from burns, she seemed to be going into a state of wild ecstacy, arms upraised, lips loosely parted in a grin, and eyes white.

And before the elder Uchiha knew it, the rapidly expanding flames had rushed over and engulfed him, incinerating cloth and body, until these broke down and were swept off into oblivion by the waves of intense heat.

Gradually, the flames retreated back onto Jean's body, and Phoenix telekinetically lifted herself up in the air , above the level of the surrounding forest canopy.

"THE MORTALS NOW WIELD POWERS THEY ARE NOT MEANT TO !" She declared loudly to the heavens, now growing less dim from the imminent sunrise, and beginning to take on a shade of grey.

"CHAOS REIGNS, ORDER HAS GONE FROM THIS WORLD !"

As if in response to her booming voice, the winds picked up speed, growing stronger and swirling and rushing towards Phoenix so that the treetops began to bend and sway under their influence. Amidst the increasingly audible howling, leaves and various debris were swept up and swam madly about in the air in a sort of massive, high speed dance.

"BALANCE MUST BE RESTORED !"

The hazy grey of the sky had now thickened into darker, heavier storm clouds, like clumps of wet tissue paper waiting to pour down their contents onto the ground below.

"THE HIDDEN LANDS MUST BE PURGED !"

"That is enough, Jean !" cried the voice of a man in his late middle age. "Come down now."

Phoenix stared down at the bald man in a wheelchair who had just come out onto the courtyard.

"EVEN AT THIS TIME, CHARLES, YOU STILL BELIEVE THAT YOUR PRECIOUS JEAN GREY IS WHO YOU THINK SHE IS."

"My beliefs aside." Xavier strained to raise his voice over the noise of the wind. "Killing a continent will not give you the order you want !"

"YOU PRESUME TO CRITICISE MY PLANS FOR THIS WORLD, MORTAL ?"

"I presume to stop you !" Xavier shouted and then coughed.

"DO YOU ?"

Xavier gasped as he felt his wheel chair dissolve from under him, vapourised into thin air. The next moment, he fell back onto the ground. Suppressing a few coughs, he struggled to sit up. "I have done that before. I can do it again !"

Phoenix jerked back in surprise as a sudden psionic assault jarred her mind, followed by a crude psychic force trying to push itself into her consciousness.

"YOU DON'T WANT TO DO THIS, CHARLES, I'M-" She stopped talking and grimaced as she tried to fend off these attempts by the world's greatest telepath to seal her back into Jean Grey's mind. Even the telekinetic force keeping her levitated was withdrawn, and she slowly descended back onto the ground.

Xavier heard footsteps approaching him from behind.

"Professor, what's going on ?" Ororo's voice asked. A pause. "Jean … she's …"

"Yes-" His full concentration on suppressing Phoenix's power, Xavier could only manage a monosyllabic reply.

"Jean, fight it !" Scott called out. "Professor, how can we help ?"

"Hm-"

"I think I can subdue it." Sasuke muttered.

"You said what ?" Both Ororo and Scott looked in Sasuke's direction.

"I've done it before." From where he stood Sasuke tried to establish eye contact with Phoenix. "Not exactly the same kind of creature but I should have an effect."

At last those huge black eyes met his gaze, and he peered into the inner world of the Phoenix.

It was fire everywhere. White and bright yellow flames burst forth from all over the ground, which was nothing but a plane of bright white light, and reached into the heavens, where their glow coloured the sky orange like the glow of metal heated to superhigh temperatures.

And from amid this raging inferno, there arose a bird, whose size was impossible gauge against this surreal background. Its eagle like head reached all the way above the white haze that passed for clouds, and in place of feathers it had streams of flames which emerged and flowed down the contours of its body, streaming out into the air from the back of its head, the edges of its wings and the end of its tail. Its emerald eyes held a piercing gaze, now directed at Sasuke.

"INSOLENT MORTAL !"

Sasuke felt a burning sensation all over his body and abruptly tore his gaze away from Phoenix's eyes to avoid any further injury to himself.

Ororo saw Sasuke breathing heavily and looking down onto the ground. "Are you alright ? What happened ?"

"I'm fine, it's … more dangerous than I thought."

Dangerous as it was, this little intrusion did distract Phoenix long enough, for Xavier to catch her unawares.

Jean Grey's body shook and convulsed and then collapsed onto the floor as Xavier telepathically suppressed Phoenix's essence and sealed it up within Jean's mind. She lay there motionless, eyes closed.

"Jean !" Scott called out again.

"She'll be fine." Xavier assured him. The professor was very exhausted, and he let Ororo and Sasuke haul him back towards the X-Mansion, while Scott went over to check on Jean.

"Ah, that saved me the effort … thank you very much !"

The four of them looked up towards the source of the voice and saw a dark figure leap down from a nearby tree to stand two metres away on the other side of Jean's unconscious body.

It was a figure in a black cloak with swirling red cloud patterns, same as that Sasuke had seen Madara wear. This person, though, had neither hood nor mask. His hair was a shocking orange, of medium length, combed straight to the left so that they resembled a tuft of grass being perpetually blown off in one direction by the wind. His skin was deathly pale, and there were strange black studs arranged symmedtrically along his nose, chin and ears.

His eyes glowed phosphorescent grey, with concentric bands of varying shades around the pupil of each eye. The lower half of his face was covered by a tall wide neckband rising from the collar of his cloak.

"Who … who are you ?" Scott pressed a finger on the side of his goggle, ready to fire his optic blasts if the stranger tried anything funny. "What are you doing here ?"

"None of your concern."In one sharp motion, the stranger held out a open palm and faced it forward at Scott, and a gust of strong wind slammed into the latter's chest, throwing him backwards through the air, all the way past the three persons looking on flabbergasted behind him and almost into the wall of the X-Mansion.

"Do not resist, X-Men. Then consequences will be quite _painful_."

Seeing this, Sasuke immediately formed his Shadow Clone Mudras with his free hand.

"Now, let's get this over with." Pein07 bent down and was about to pick up Jean Grey's limb form when something emerged from beneath the ground right next to her.

He looked on in astonishment as the translucent figure of a young girl with brown hair tied into a ponytail rose through the surface of the ground without disturbing its texture, made a face and stuck out a tongue at him, wrapped her arms around Jean Grey's waist, turned the latter's body translucent as well, and pulled her down into the ground, the both of them going down smoothly as if sinking through water.

In a second the two had vanished, leaving the ground where they had phased through totally unchanged as if nothing had happened there.

Pein07 heard series of "poof" sounds followed by the bang of a door slammed shut, and looked up to see that the man with the red goggle, the dark skinned woman with white hair, the bald 

middle aged man, and the young boy in a gi had vanished as well, leaving puffs of white and yellow smoke and a few falling twigs and leave in their place, as well as the faint smell of fire and brimstone in the air.

"Teamwork I see." Pein07's eyes stared up at the X-Mansion and narrowed. "We'll see how long it will last you."

The howling of the wind grew more violent.


	17. Wheels Grind

What happened to Madara ? Find out at the end of the story.

**Wheels Grind**

When you step in through the main entrance of the X-Mansion, you come to a three stories high reception hall which occupies the entire width of the front portion of the mansion, so that the tall Georgian windows that line its sides and front give an unobstructed view of the forest and courtyard outside.

The floor was a waxed dark brown wood, covered in a thin red carpet for most of its area except for the borders where it folded up into the wall.

Ahead, a flight of stairs three metres wide, complete with handrails of the same Georgian design, led up from the centre of the hall to a corridor on the second story, visible from below, which led further ahead into the building, with various doors at regular intervals on either side.

On each side of the bottom of the stairs, the floor sank down forward through a shorter series of steps towards a dimly lit area that led to the lower levels of the mansion.

It was still early morning, and the lights not been switched on, leaving the hall full of shadows cast by the gloomy grey light that poured in from the overcast sky outside through the tall windows.

Into this scene Shadowcat and Marvel Girl emerged, phasing up through the middle of the floor, the former holding the older X-Man, still unconscious, in her arms and facing the door, but all the while looking down with a worried expression on Jean's face.

Behind her, she heard a "bampf" as Nightcrawler teleported in a flash of yellow fire and smoke into the hall, with Professor X leaning arms slung over Kurt's shoulders. Beside him rose two puffs of smoke as two figures identical in appearance came into view, one holding onto Ororo by the arm, and the other dragging Cyclops, still delirious from the shock of the blow from the grey eyed stranger, by the arm as well.

Finally, there was a bang followed by a few clicks as Sasuke closed and locked the main entrance door behind him, and then walked over to stand beside Kitty.

"We are safe, but not for long. The Akatsuki are all quite powerful shinobi. With both Ms Grey and Professor …"

Kitty did not seem to hear, her attention focused on Jean.

"You know him ? - whoa ... " Ororo yelped in surprise to see a boy identical in appearance to Sasuke standing right next to her.

"I've heard of them. Fought one of them. S-class missing nin'." Sasuke1 answered for his original.

"S-class vat ?" Kurt asked.

Sasuke searched for the right words. "Superpowered criminals."

"Right." Ororo sat down at the bottom of the stairs and shook her head. "What do they want with us ?"

"Ms grey has something they want." Sasuke explained calmly. "A crea- an entity sealed inside her which possesses tremendous power. What they will do after they have obtained its power I am not sure, but a former mentor of mine did tell me that once the entity is extracted, the host dies."

"The Phoenix …" Xavier muttered under his breath. "Is it really …" And then he laid a hand over his bald head and let it droop down.

"Professor ? You in zere ?" Kurt shook the Professor's shoulders gently. "Don't go ! We need you !"

Sasuke knelt down beside Kitty. "He only wants Ms Grey, the rest of you must stay out of his line of fire at all costs."

Kitty gave him such a sharp glare that made him stand and step back, his own eyes widening slightly. For a moment they stared into each other's eyes.

A series of strange images flashed across Sasuke's mind. It took him a second to recognize them for what they were: Kitty's memories, glimpsed through her eyes as an unintended effect of Sasuke's eye-based mind reading techniques. His Sharingan was not activated, and he could not make sense of them, but somehow they left a strong impression on him.

"No, we are not letting anyone take her away !" There was now a noticeable edge to her voice. She hugged Jean close to her chest.

"I did not mean that …" Sasuke began.

"Jean is like a big sister to us …" Kitty looked down at a voice. Cracks had replaced the hard edge in her voice, and Sasuke suspected that her expression had softened by considerable degree as well. "She was there for us no matter what. It's not just a psychic thing … She's the one who cleans up after we have gone too far … cheers us up when we are sad … attends to us when we are alone … "

"Is that so …" Sasuke lowered his gaze to the floor, memories of his own surging up from the depths of his own mind to occupy his current thoughts. Familiar faces. Naruto, Sakura, Itachi …

Kitty rubbed her cheeks gently against Jean's forehead. "And all this time people keep saying she's mentally unstable, the most dangerous mutant in the world." Now her voice gave faint hints of sobs "They don't understand what it's like …"

Sasuke took a deep breath and turned around to face the door. "She'll be fine." He said in a tone strangely reassuring for a person who tried his best to act nonchalant most of the time, and then he walked over to open the door.

"Wait, where are you going ?" Kitty called out.

Sasuke turned his head to smile back at her, showing his activated Sharingan. "To preserve bonds." And then he faced forward again and walked out into the courtyard, followed by Sasuke2 who closed the door behind him.

"To preserve vat ?" Kurt asked noone in particular.

Ororo rolled her eyes and threw her hands up in the air. "Beats me." Then she stood up and walked across the hall to look out through one of the windows at the courtyard outside.

Xxx

"Hmm …" Pein07 narrowed his expression again, the only expression of his that was visible from a distance, as he saw Sasuke and Sasuke2 step out into the courtyard. Due to the nature of shadow clones, it was difficult to tell who was the original and who was the clone, so he stared at the one now standing closest to him. "The last Uchiha, no ?"

Sasuke returned the stare with a determined look of his own. "I'm sorry, you will not get what you came here for today. Where is the old man with the mask ?"

"Oh, Madara ? He's somewhere nice and comfortable. As to your first statement, I'm not leaving until you surrender the Phoenix."

Sasuke pointed his sword in Pein07's direction. "Not today."

Pein07 tilted his head slightly. "Why not ? She is no relation of yours."

Sasuke ignored the question and maintained his pose.

The two of them stared at each other silently for a while. And then, Sasuke gave a knowing smirk. "Doujutsu."

"Clever." Pein07's Rinnegan shimmered. "You know now that visual Genjutsu are useless against these eyes of mine."

"Any Doujutsu ( eye technique) can see through them," Sasuke's own eyes glowed as well. " but illusions aren't the Sharingan's only power."

"Of course, but I have kind of forgotten about that." Pein spread his arms. "Care to refresh my memory ?"

"If you insist … but first," Sasuke quickly bit his thumb and smeared the resulting blood onto his other palm, and then slapped the latter onto the ground before him. Immediately, he lifted his hand off the ground again and stepped back

At once, a circle of black arcane letters appeared where he had slapped the ground. Six lines of similar scribbling radiated outward from the outer edge of the circle.

The next moment the circle of Summoning erupted in a cloud of white smoke huge enough to cover several people, as if some stage technician had poured several buckets of dry ice into a swimming pool.

From within this cloud, a giant snake covered in blue and black scales, its head the size of two humans, shot out and glided like a speeding train towards Pein07, it's jaws wide open to reveal rows of curved dagger like teeth.

Pein07 did not appear shocked, as if the large serpent pouncing at him posed no threat at all. Calmly, he leapt back as the snake closed its jaws around the space where he stood a second ago. The snake crashed snout first into him and its momentum brought the two of them out over the fence and all the way through the forest, tens of metres away from the X-Mansion.

When they had finally stopped, Pein07 formed a series of hand seals, and shards of rocks shot up a storey high from beneath the snake and impaled it along its length. The snake gave off a loud angry hiss before crumbling completely to white ash and smoke, leaving a long dangerous looking line of slanted and irregularly shaped stone obelisks in its place.

The next moment, he spun around, and parried Sasuke2's lightning charged sword thrust with a black metal spear which he had kept hidden under his cloak.

"Stealthy, but pointless." Pein07 tightened his grip on the shaft of his spear.

Sasuke2 gasped as the lightning sparks arcing along the blade of his sword suddenly leapt up and turned towards him.

Immediately he jumped back and withdrew the lightning chakra from his sword.

While Sasuke2 caught his breath and recovered from the shock of the counterattack, Pein07 calmly turned to his left and blocked a downward sword slash from Sasuke.

"I told you, pointless." Pein07 remarked calmly as the two continued to lock swords, their eyes shifting focus subtly as the both of them used the enhanced insight of their Doujutsu to seek out a weakness in the opponent's stance and react instantly to each other's attacks at a rate that no ordinary human could follow. Neither gained a visible edge over the other.

Taking advantage of the fact that Pein07 seemed to be paying full attention to Sasuke, Sasuke2 charged the figure in the black cloak, and dropped to a high kneel as something black swooped down and through where his head had been a second ago.

Standing up, he realized that there was an entire flock of frigate birds, dozens of them, circling the air above him, staring down at him with eyes identical to those of Pein07's. At once they swooped down at him with a speed that one would never expect of normal seabirds, brandishing their unusually long sharp claws and beaks.

"What kind of Doujutsu is this ?" Sasuke2 swung his sword to slice down the first few as they came dangerously close, their claws scoring shallow gashes along his cheeks and arms. His Sharingan barely managed to follow their movements, as if their unexplained link with Pein07 had imbued them with powers of an S-Class Shinobi as well.

Their speed and numbers were overwhelming, and soon, Sasuke2 disappeared within a chaotic mass of beaks, claws, feathers, and deathly glowing grey eyes.

Without warning, the core of this frenzy exploded into a cloud of black ash and smoke, and bolts of lightning burst forth from the space where Sasuke2 had stood to strike at the stunned and disoriented monster frigate birds, blowing the latter into nothing but ash as well.

"Shadow Clone Explosion." Pein07's eyes revealed no hint of surprise. "Seen Itachi use it before. A surprisingly effective technique."

xxx

Sasuke1 appeared visibly stunned as Sasuke2 self-destructed and the memory of the battle from the latter's perspective was passed on at once to both him and Sasuke.

The momentary distraction allowed one brave brigate bird swooping in from the front to take a shallow swipe at the shoulder of his weapon arm with its claws.

Yet even when he was spaced out, his Sharingan reacted, calculating the trajectory of for the next split second.

Turning his sword downwards, he thrust it past his waist behind him and stabbed the seabird right through its heart just as it was a little over a metre away from him. For a moment it croaked and beat its wings violently, resisting the process of turning to ash.

The rest of the flock of marauding seabirds took advantage of Sasuke1's seemingly awkward posture to dive down towards him in unison, hoping to overwhelm him in the same way they did with Sasuke2.

"Ha, not this time." Even with its unreal ability to track motion, the Sharingan was not evolved for dealing with dozens of winged assailants charging in from a dozen directions in almost perfect coordination. On the other hand, the alternative solution to the problem was actually quite simple, at least to a Shinobi.

As the frigate birds were within a foot of Sasuke1, they were blasted in the face by a strong rush of air and squarked in shock as Sasuke1 suddenly vanished into a thin wisp of smoke which quickly diffused to reveal a pile of twigs and leaves dropping onto the ground where they thought he stood.

From the corners of their eyes they caught sight of Sasuke1's new nearby position as he finished his Shunshin ( body flicker ) technique, and immediately swerved round towards him.

That turned out to be a fatal mistake as Sasuke1 hurled a Goukakyu in their direction.

In the blink of an eye, the whole squad of angrily squarking and frantically tumbling seabird summons was engulfed in a three metre wide ball of flames and turned to ash.

"I guess multiple points of view becomes meaningless if you are all looking inwards at the same object." Sasuke1 allowed himself a brief smile of satisfaction. "Another flock down. Unknown number more to go ..."

xxx

"And what is my brother to you ?" Sasuke took advantage of Pein07's relaxed attention to leap back and blow a Grand Fireball at him.

"A capable surbordinate." Just as quickly as it had been formed, the gigantic human sized ball of flames was blown off by one of Pein07's own. "A fine specimen. A pity, his chakra tended to get exhausted pretty fast and his health was less than robust. I suggest you conserve your strength as well. Let me have the Phoenix and we both walk away whole."

"And yet he always gave his best." Sasuke tightened his grip of his sword at the description of his brother."As will I."

"Oh, and what kind of difference will you make with those unseasoned powers of yours ?" Pein07 lifted his head and stared down intimidatingly at Sasuke.

"I … will use _that_ if I have to." Sasuke lowered his face while maintaining eye contact with Pein07 to hide his uncertainty.

"Oh, that." Pein07 waved his spear and raised an eyebrow. "Even Itachi had trouble wielding it. Are you as reckless as your brother ?"

"Try me." Though maintaining his combat ready posture, Sasuke tensed his body in preparation for the effort, and the pain that came with it.

"MANGEKYOU SHARINGAN !"


	18. Nice eyes

A lot of separate things in this chapter, because I'm skipping the boring details.

Look out for the Hellraiser quote ;)

**Nice Eyes**

As he tried to activate the rare second form of the Sharingan, Sasuke felt a sudden scalding heat gather in his eyes from all over his body, a familiar sensation.

Each of the black commas in his eyes elongated into thin arcs, the two tips of which extended past either side of the pupil and joined each other on the opposite side, encircling the pupil in an ellipse that spanned the whole width of the iris. There were thus three intersecting ellipses encircling each pupil, angled evenly from each other to form the anachronistic model of the atom with three electron orbits, with the pupil forming the nucleus, against the red background of the iris. The area from the outer edge of all the orbits to the edge of the iris was black.

"Nice eyes." Pein07 whistled. "Wonder what it does …"

The moment his Mangekyo Sharingan had taken shape, Sasuke let loose the first technique he thought of, which had been imprinted into his instincts thanks to Itachi.

"Amaterasu …"

Even as the first vowel of the word was spoken, Pein07 slapped an open palm onto the ground.

To an outside observer, it would appear as if Pein07's body had suddenly been engulfed by a rapidly flickering cloud of smoke, blacker in colour than any black one had seen. Upon closer observation, one realize that the "smoke" took the exact form of flames. It was like filming a bright white fire and looking at the negatives.

The black flames spread almost to the edge of the clearing that had been caused by the snake crashing Pein07 to the ground, when Sasuke closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The flames continued to burn, chewing through rock and soil, but they stopped spreading.

"What did I tell you about conserving your strength ?"

Sasuke looked up to see Pein07 sitting atop a gigantic Pterosaur with a wingspan three men long hovering far above the level of the treetops, out of reach of the pool of black flames.

Sasuke gave a tired but triumphant grin as he felt Sasuke1 expire as well and all the divided Chakra energy flooded back into him. "You are right where I want you."

He held up his sword high and pointed it towards the sky.

From his flying mount, with his Rinnegan, Pein07 saw a stream of potent chakra energy shoot up from Sasuke's sword all the way up into the clouds. A reverse stream of the blue haze poured down from the clouds down onto the boy, and the exchange continued, until the air was supercharged with lightning elemental chakra.

The clouds began to churn and swirl around like a view of a raging hurricane from space. And then the first few arcs of lightning and thunder in the day, which grew more frequent, as if the spirits themselves had been roused from their hiding places in the clouds to do battle.

"Fascinating." Pein07 steered his mount to a side to avoid a bolt of lightning. "Augmenting your elemental chakra with that from the greatest source of its natural counterpart."

He nodded to himself, genuinely impressed. This boy would make an interesting replacement for Itachi. He continued to dodge the lightning and observe Sasuke, confident in his ability to see and avoid anything that the latter would throw at him next.

He was not prepared.

It was a surreal sight. The white hot flashes of lightning suddenly turned pitch black in colour, like sudden tears in the fabic of space.

And those were precisely what they were, gigantic rips in the material of reality that defied the latter's common laws.

Even as the Rinnegan allowed Pein07 to see them clearly and understand them for what they were, there was no time for him to perform a counter.

The black lightning overcame all his attempts at dodging them and struck his mount in a wing, igniting black flames which spread furiously over the rest of the pterasaur's body. The latter roared in agony and its position in the air became less and less steady.

Frantically, Pein07 channeled his own chakra over the black fire to try and suppress it. While he was doing so, another bolt of black lightning struck him in the back, and he felt the incapacitating pain of flames eating through his own flesh.

"Impossible, how can a mere boy possess such power …" Pein07 shook his head in disbelief, "I couldn't tell from looking at him …"

As the otherworldly fire completely, and truly consumed his body, Pein07's expression changed from panic to one of eerie calm and satisfaction ."Ahhh … the _pain_ … the sweet suffering …"

Sasuke watched as the mass of black flames suspended in the air gradually broke down and dissolved into nothingness, then fell to his knees, sighed and screamed as the relaxing of his concentration brought the pain in his eyes back in full force, which still lingered for a while after he shut off the Mangekyo Sharingan.

"Thanks for the assist, Storm." Sasuke called out hoarsely.

"I felt the shift in the winds, and did what I could to make it easier for you. " Ororo replied as she stepped out from within the forest. "If your twin weren't distracting those ... birds ... whatever they were, I might not have arrived in time anyway." She looked around at aftermath of the battle."So I assume it's over ?"

Sasuke looked stared ahead at the black flames still burning on the ground, tried to use his chakra control to put it out, then gave up, and nodded.

"Then let's go back, Kitty is worried about you." Ororo helped Sasuke to his feet. "Oh my God, your eyes … they're bleeding !"

"I'll be fine." Sasuke it off, took a step forward, and almost fell forward had Ororo not caught him by the chest.

"You need to rest."

"Yes, I do." Sasuke smiled and let the darkness take over.

Xxx

Sitting cross legged atop a rock on a sea coast far away, a figure in a black cloak opened his eyes to reveal concentric grey bands of various shades around each pupil.

For a while he stood and stared out into the sea.

And then he heard footsteps from behind him.

"Ah, you survived. Your dimension-jumping skills have gotten better."

"Almost didn't make it." Uchiha Madara recounted. "The awakening of the Phoenix was totally unexpected. Now that I think of it, right before that, she got paralyzed by something, and her energies were in a state of turmoil. Did you … ?" He looked suspiciously at the grey eyed figure.

The latter closed his eyes. "It was only supposed to paralyze her." And then opened them again. "The phoenix is an entity like nothing we have seen. My chakra manipulation may not work on her the same way it does to my other victims."

"Really ?" Madara continued to stare at Pein questioningly for a while. "Was that all it was, Pein ?"

Now Pein returned the stare. "That aside, there were other unexpected turns of events that perhaps you can better explain."

"Such as ?"

"Such as how Uchiha Sasuke escaped." Pein's eyes narrowed. "And I could tell when I looked into his eyes, he knew what we were up to."

"The boy is resourceful for his age." Madara chuckled and gave a gentle wave with one hand. "Let me guess, he destroyed your latest body ?"

"No matter. I'll have it replaced soon enough." Now Pein's expression gave off a subtle hint of amusement. "Perhaps I'll use a female this time."

"Oh ? That would be a first !" Madara laughed.

"What will you do now ? We have not captured the Phoenix, and the boy does not look like he would join us anytime soon."

"We'll make do without her. As to Sasuke, he'll come to us, sooner or later."

"Indeed …"

xxx

Days later …

"Damn you Charles !" Colonel Nick Fury swore and threw up his arms in frustration.

The eyepatch wearing, middle aged commander of Shield stood facing a bare section of wall in the dark deserted control room.

There were some lines of words scratched into this area of the wall, like some medium sized poster that was engraved into the concrete rather than painted on paper.

And the first line read, "Sorry, bub, we got here first." At the end of the sentence was a big smiley that was made up of a series of familiar claw marks.

Fuming, he shifted his gaze to the line below. "Relax, my friend, have some Vodka !" At the end of this sentence was a gigantic exclamation mark that appeared to have been formed by hammering the wall with something heavy, metallic, and roughly the size of large human fist. Below, where the wall folded into the floor, was a glass bottle of the named beverage.

Fury dashed forward, grabbed the bottle, and was about to smash it against the wall when he heard somebody call to him from behind him.

"Uh, Sir …"

Stiffly, slowly lowering the bottle, Fury rotated to face his subordinate, who wore the same blue form fitting uniform as he did, complete with the sleek black minimalist utility belts.

The younger shield member jerked his head in mild confusion at the sight of the strange glass bottle held in his commander's hand. "Something wrong, Sir ?"

Fury forced a smile on his dark skinned face. "Nothing, I should have known, the good professor wouldn't alert me to the existence of this facility without … is there nothing we can find, Max ?"

Max shook his head gently. "If you are referring to research, Sir, there is nothing. All the samples were disposed of, the equipment sabotaged, the data erased, quite thoroughly, as if … there is no place in this facility that the perpetrators couldn't reach."

"I have a good idea who they are." Fury nodded, and then stared curiously into Max's eyes. "You seem to imply that there was something left behind."

"Yes Sir," Max grinned in an attempt to lighten the mood. "Security videos. We are examining them in the main hall right this moment."

"Ah, of course." Fury returned the grin. "After leaving me a signed message, why bother hiding the tapes, hm ?" he leaned forward and patted Max on the back. "Tell the rest, 'Good Job, and have some vodka !'" he handed Max the bottle of strong alcohol and proceeded to exit the control room.

Max turned the bottle over in his hand and stared at its fading labels in bewilderment. Then he shrugged, took a smalls sip of the Vodka, and turned to follow his commander out through the door.

xxx

"Yeah, it's them." Fury noted as he bent over the uniformed young woman working the labtop and peered closer at the blurry footage showing two buff looking men smashing a roomful of screens, ripping cables, and occasionally grinning and showing a finger to the camera. "Cocky fellas. Any other ones ?"

"Plenty, Sir." The female Shield technician replied and tapped away at a few keys. "It's all encrypted so that only codes provided by government agents can unlock them." She shook her head and smiled in defeat, "wonder where they got a hold of those."

My fault really, Fury thought, I owe James my life, and did not keep up my guard against him even though he's a danger to an organization such as mine. The Shield commander decided to keep this detail a secret. "Well, If you've had the kind of field experience Wolverine has had and are virtually indestructible like he is, there's really nowhere you can't go." Fury recounted with a mix of admiration and incredulity, his attention focused on the short, stocky and thick haired figure in each recorded scene.

And then something else caught his eye. "Wait, stop right there. A few frames back" Fury waited for the technician to flip back to the unusual scene he had just glimpsed. "Ah, this … "

"It's one of the holding cells Sir." The technician explained, and pointed to the haggard figure of a man lyng outside the cell. "That's one of the weapon X soldiers," she then shifted her finger to the rugged looking man with a feral countenance holding on to the soldier's arm. "That's the man whom we know as the first Weapon X." She then moved on to the columns of green light that separated the interior of the cell from the corridor where Wolverine had dragged the soldier into view. "And there … Oh my God …"

Through the laser barrier, both Fury and the technician saw the figure of a young boy in his mid teens, dressed in an attire that reminded the both of them of their Aikido instructors.

The boy had long drooping spiky black hair, but the most striking feature were his eyes, which glowed a bright crimson. What was visible from the fuzzy frozen image gave the vague hint of something more than just simple round black pupils.

The technician found herself mesmerized by the boy's luminous red orbs, unable to look away or find the key to flip to the next few frames.

She was jolted awake by a heavy tap on her shoulder.

"I want you guys to look up any information regarding this boy, or whatever he is." Fury rubbed his chin, and then added to himself. "On second thought, we'd probably need to do a little active investigation. I have a feeling this person will not be found on any of our files."

"Right away Sir !" The technician answered.

Fury took one last look at the boy's youthful ( strangely androgynous) yet disturbingly emotionless face before turning around to attend to the other teams he had brought with him.

"Interesting eyes."

Xxx

Sasuke sat at the top of the roof, enjoying the view of the sunset, and thinking back to the events of the past few days.

His encounter with the X-Men had changed him, though he had not admitted how this was possible.

His battle with the grey eyed Akatsuki member was a surprise even to himself, not just because he had emerged victorious against an opponent with Doujutsu that rivaled his own in power. His motivation for fighting was something that he had never felt since that time when he protected Naruto from Haku's ice needles years ago. This was something that he had not admitted as well. Nevertheless, he felt strangely content that he had acted the way he did, as if it had made up for some deep regrets he had been harbouring.

"Don't look directly at the sun too long, you don't want to lose those precious eyes of yours don't you ?"

Sasuke sat upright with a start. "Kitty ? How did you … never mind."

Chuckling, the young brunette turned tangible and sat next to Sasuke, who turned to face her. "What are you doing here ?"

"Ah well, same as you I think." the girl paused to catch the view of the sun disappearing down the horizon. "You know, Kurt said that since everything is quiet now, maybe you would find time to have a little sparring session with him."

"Maybe …" Sasuke rubbed his chin with a finger.

A moment of silence.

"Hey … um" Kitty hesitated," … what are you really ? I mean … the Professor thinks you are … special, and Ororo n Logan, they talk like you've just wiped the floor with Magneto's butt …"

"Who's Magneto ?"

"He's … well … you'll know him soon. Crazy old man. He and the professor used to be friends and all." Kitty went back to the main topic, " Anyway, I've never seen anyone like you, Sasuke."

"Really …"

Kitty tried to organize her thoughts, not sure how to continue. "I mean, first there's those eyes. Rogue got her eyes when she absorbed her boyfriend into her, so she said. They don't do much, but yours, they are unique." Kitty's voice softened into a dreamy whisper. " … beautiful …"

Sasuke thought back to the time when he showed Kitty his Sharingan. They had stared into each other's eyes for quite a moment. He wasn't using any illusions or any of his usual eye techniques, yet he could tell it had an effect on her, though he had not been quite sure what.

"So are yours." He replied absently.

"Huh ?"

Again, they looked silently at each other. Sasuke got the weird impression that her face was slowly getting closer and closer to his.

And then they heard a loud "bampf" accompanied by the strong smell of fire and brimstone.

"Ah, zere you are !"

They looked blankly from one to the other, and then broke out together in laughter.

…

_Laughter from the seas …_

_White clouds drifting, glorious sun shining, on my carefree melodies._

_Free am I, my heart has only, laughter of the present,_

_Feeling of joy, intimate happiness, now my heart is opened._

_Sunset as blood, intoxicated red sun, I hold on to the marvels,_

_Drifting with the dust and waves, remember only the laughter of the present._

_Passionate chorus, declare with proud abandon, see past the mysteries of the world,_

_Come and go as wished, no limits to freedom, on me noone has a hold._

_Face with a smile, the torrents, who can tell how things shall unfold ?_

_Drift with the dust and waves, remember only the laughter of the present,_

_Feeling of joy, intimate happiness, now my heart is opened !_

_- Swordsman 2 (1992) theme_

-

End of 1st arc

Hope you enjoyed the story ;) and thanks for all your comments

Originally, I had Sasuke1 dissolve himself in the reception hall of the X-mansion. That was dumb I know XD

Sorry I didn't use any nickname for Sasuke.

It'll appear when he encounters other factions like the Brotherhood, Shield, the Ultimates etc ( that's if I do continue the story at all ... ).

Till then, have a good day/night !

- Star


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